


Masquerade

by AsterHowl



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-09
Updated: 2015-09-09
Packaged: 2018-04-19 17:30:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 47,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4754963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsterHowl/pseuds/AsterHowl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>SG-1 make the horrifying discovery that Janet Fraiser has been host to a Goa’uld for the past three years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Canon diverges after Janet is killed. The subtle difference is that her body was not recovered. I feel it is also important to clarify that this takes place during a time when it was not okay to be gay in the military. Also, let’s say Vala is 36 at the time of "Continuum". If Qetesh hadn’t been allowed to leave Ba’al’s side in fifty years it would make her at the very least 86 years old. Her father looks pretty darn good for his age. Rubbish. I’m ignoring most of the episode "Family Ties". I’ve decided Vala was Qetesh for quite a whiles.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's all fun and games until someone interrupts a ritual sacrifice.

They couldn’t take more than three steps along the slate stone road without a gregarious reveller or two offering a chalice of drink and a good time. Cam was forever batting away unwanted affections, shrugging between the bodies closing in on him.

Music poured over the streets like slow flowing wine, luminous and bending. It got in through his skin and pounded in his chest. Arms moved in the air like snakes, slithering round necks and waists, gleaming with sweat and spirits under the gaslights.

The air was thick with the smell of heat and perspiration, of sweet scented foods and bitter beverages. In the thick of the crowd Cam was reminded of being under water, everything moving slowly and fluidly, hearing a constant thrum of noise in which he felt frighteningly isolated.

To ease his nerves he looked across his shoulder in search of a familiar face. Vala was there, entranced by the eccentric demonstrations and exotic decorations of the festival. Just seeing her was a comfort, just as it was to see the faces of Sam and Teal’c when there were gaps between passing heads.

The two were far enough away he would be concerned for them if they didn’t have each other, and Cam supposed he had better secure Vala before she was led away by the gyrating hips of some seductive dancer.

He pushed and squeezed himself between shoulders and made quick surges when the spaces opened up. By the time he reached Vala her hips were swaying in the hands of a tall stranger and her fingers were tracing circles around his breast.

“Vala.” Cam cleared his throat. The music was deafening, and shouts and cheers burst into the air like geysers. Lights dazzled over their heads and cast everything in a kaleidoscopic glow. Vala pressed her hands flat against the man’s chest, swinging against him to the primal beats.

Cam slapped a hand on her shoulder. “Vala!” The two kept dancing as though he were not even there, so Cam tugged her aside by force. Vala came away giggling and her dancing partner pouted playfully before turning back to the crowd.

Vala stumbled giddily.  
Cam frowned and grabbed her other shoulder, turning her to face him. “Vala. Get a grip.”  
Vala puffed breathlessly. “I’ll say this about Setesh. Bastard sure knew how to throw a party.”  
Cam released her with a doubtful scoff. “Come on. I don’t wanna lose Sam and Teal’c.” He nudged himself behind Vala so he could keep an eye on her as they travelled through the packed square.

The people filling the open courtyard moved about like rippling vines of seaweed billowing majestically at the bottom of the ocean. Vala began to shuffle herself between them.  
“Yes, God forbid they have any fun,” she said.  
“Knowing Sam and Teal’c,” Cam said, contorting himself awkwardly to fit between two large men he would rather not have made any kind of physical contact with, “This is the furthest from their idea of fun.”

Not two feet in front of Teal’c a man and woman were locked at the hip and entwined in gleaming limbs. Their mouths hung open as though to catch gently falling rain, their drifting eyelids synchronised with the pitch of their breath and the tempo of their vigorous grinding.

The act was not entirely out of place in this atmosphere of reckless abandon and debauchery. Teal’c observed them critically until his senses tuned to Sam’s voice.  
“Yeah,” she was saying. “Move along, buddy.”  
Teal’c turned his head in time to see a disappointed young man backing away from the Colonel.

Teal’c moved to her side just as another man reached for her from behind. His hands barely brushed her hips when Sam spun and smacked her hand against the man’s chest. She had wrongly assumed the stranger would at least be wearing some kind of shirt or vest she could catch in a tight and threatening fist.

Instead, her hand had landed flat against his bare and shimmering torso. Sam peeled her hand away with a grunt of disgust and wiped it on her pants. The man beamed at her, and chuckled, making a noise like rocks rolling down a cliff.

“Look,” Sam said, shifting her weight on her heels. “I’m flattered and all, really, but no thanks.”  
Without a word the man reached this time for her shoulders. Sam’s eyes flared and she slapped his arms away, furious. “I said no.”

Teal’c arrived as the man slipped away with his hands up in surrender and a sparkle in his teeth.  
“Honestly,” Sam snapped, turning to Teal’c. Her frustration was to such a degree she could form no other words. Teal’c offered her an empathetic smile and was pleased that she seemed to relax in his company.

In the next second Sam’s jaw tensed and her eyes shut. When they opened again she swung around breathing death. “Touch me again and I’ll...”  
Vala grinned broadly at her. “Oh, do tell me.” She leaned into her with her brow tilted low. “I’m all chills now.”  
Sam backed down, venting the rush of adrenalin through an exhausted sigh. “Vala.”

Vala slipped past her, deliberately rubbing against her body and Sam had little room to avoid her. Without looking Vala slipped a hand around Sam’s hip, pressing her fingers firmly over the flesh of her ass. Giving her cheek a tight squeeze, she made the otherwise sophisticated woman buck and squeak in surprise.

The angle at which Teal’c’s brow lifted made Vala grin and she came to hang herself off his arm. Sam burned and felt her face twitch uneasily under the combined scrutiny of both Vala and Teal’c’s equivocal gazes.

“So,” Cam said, as he arrived, “This place is nuts, huh?”  
“Indeed,” Teal’c said, smirking at Sam who turned a shade redder.  
“Come on. We should wait for Daniel outside the Academy. He should be done soon, right?”

They moved as a close group through the square, under the massive stone statue of Setesh. Sam resisted looking up at it, feeling a sensation like hot oil poured slowly down her back.

Visions of the Goa’uld’s crushed and mangled body, fear frozen on his dead face, haunted her beyond her outstretched hand. The power that surged through her that day still frightened her. Her hand suddenly trembled again, remembering the pulse from her palm that sledged Setesh into the ground.

“You okay?” Cam asked, walking beside her.  
“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine.”  
Cam took note of the tightness of her jaw and her evasive downward stare. The moment they realized this was a planet once ruled by Seth, Sam’s anxiety was clearly written on her deeply expressive face.

It was perhaps unfair for Sam that the curious quirks and exaggerations of her features failed to keep her feelings effectively contained.

At the same time, there was an undeniably infectious quality about them too, and whatever Sam felt, one look was all it took for Cam or anyone else to feel exactly the same. He had experienced it many times. Her smile could inflate his chest and lift him a trillion feet into the air. He felt her tears landing on his heart and burning through the organ like a slow, mournful acid.

He’d seen her emotions influence other people as well. Teal’c was not a man known to smile often, but he would show a few teeth and his stern dark eyes twinkled when Sam beamed at him. Vala’s own moods were as erratic and effusive as anyone Cam had ever known. If there was one thing guaranteed to have an immediate effect on her it was the pain or jubilation Sam expressed.

Continuing their tradition of movie night, Vala would sit through the saddest moments with her mouth set in a stolid line. It wasn’t until she looked at Sam and saw her pale cheeks wet with tears that her bottom lip trembled a little and moments later she was sniffling behind a tightly hugged pillow.

Finally, SG-1 breached the edge of the crowd and began up the steps of the Academy. The grand building marked the central point of the city, and functioned as the culture’s learning and military training centre.

As if sensing they had reached the top of the stairs, the music suddenly shook the earth in triumphant, escalating chords and SG-1 turned to see what was happening. People were dispersing from beneath the statue of Setesh, vacating the broad stone foundation.

Cam watched curiously. “Okay. What’s going on?”  
“I do not know, Cameron Mitchell,” Teal’c said, frowning in concern.  
“Looks like they’re preparing for something,” said Sam.

People in elaborate robes were beginning to gather on the foundation, carrying with them an altar and strange decorated spires.  
Cam angled his shoulders uncomfortably. “Some sort of communion?”  
Vala gave a short, humourless laugh. “These people are celebrating Setesh. Whatever’s happening, it won’t be good.”

 

* * *

 

The Academy archives were inside a large triangular dome chamber. A pointed glass ceiling let Daniel see the twinkling stars, if he were inclined at all to look. In his exhaustive search through scrolls and tomes and scriptures too vast and too numerous to scan and record for perusal in his lab at the SGC, Daniel had encountered something peculiar in an unremarkable cabinet.

There was nothing about its place within the chamber to suggest it was something revered and yet the golden frame around the tapestry was of elegance and devotion that could mean nothing else.  
“Teff,” Daniel called to the young scholar assisting him. “What’s this?”

“Ah,” the man said, coming to stand in wonder at his side. “That is the Ancient Precept. Our earliest known written record by our Lord Setesh.”  
Key terms jumped out at Daniel as though the ancient text glowed. It was a list of commandments, the fiat by which to live their daily lives and the caste by which his people would know their worth to him.

Towards the bottom of the tapestry a list of familiar symbols caught his attention and Daniel couldn’t help lifting his finger. Teff sputtered uneasily, fearing the destruction the archaeologist’s fingertip could cause to their most cherished artefact.

“These are Gate addresses,” Daniel said, mentally translating them into the code by which the SGC computers could recognize them. “Other planets ruled by Setesh. Have you been to visit them?”

The Gate had been buried on Ombos for over a thousand years. When it was recently discovered, the culture was already at an impressive stage of technological advancement and had been exploring the galaxy in ships.

After seeing Stargates on other planets, they realized there must have been one on their own planet somewhere. There was continued tension between separate colonies as to whether Setesh had hidden the Gate deliberately or whether it had simply been lost years ago.

Teff nodded. “We have been to all of them. This one,” he said, gesturing as close as he dared to the protective glass of the mount, “Was found in ruins. These others were taken over by Setesh’s rivals and our Wars with them continue to this day. Recently we have found some of them under the influence of a cult calling themselves the Ori.”

Daniel grimaced and looked down with his hands on his hips.  
“You’ve heard of them?” Teff astutely observed.  
“We’ve encountered them on several dozen planets across the galaxy. Be thankful they have not yet come to yours,” Daniel said.

Teff nodded gravely. “It is because we are forever honouring our true God Setesh. If the Ori do come for us, Setesh will return. He will protect us.”  
Daniel thinned his lips to keep from contradicting him. He looked back at the Precept and scanned the text.

His heart suddenly tightened and his throat went cold. The whole world went dark around him, and the single gate address seemed the only thing written upon the ancient document.

He thrust outstretched hands against the outside edge of the open cabinet and leaned in close, frantically reading the inscription beside it.  
“Dr Jackson?” Teff implored, concerned for the cabinet.  
Daniel ignored him, heart pounding, blood racing.

“This last address,” Daniel said, agitation hindering his capacity to translate properly. “It says something about forsaken...forbidden...”  
“The Unnamed Land. It is forbidden for any to travel there,” Teff explained, irritation scratching in his tone as he shuffled about in a dance of contempt.

Daniel eyed the inscription frantically. “Why is it forbidden? What’s there?”  
Teff continued to fidget. “Damnation. Then end of souls. Please, Dr Jackson, I must insist...”

A crackle came from Daniel’s radio.  
“Jackson this is Mitchell. Come in!”  
Chills prickled up and down the back of his neck.  
“Daniel I really don’t have time for you to answer me at the last minute! We’ve got a serious problem out here!”

Teff picked at his fingers uncertainly. “Perhaps you should answer him.”  
With a mad hiss, Daniel snatched his radio. “This is Daniel. What’s going on?”  
“Oh...Just living up to America’s proud tradition of religious intolerance. Can you make it to the Gate?”

Daniel wanted to scream and rip something apart. He snarled at the Fates and glared unfairly at Teff.  
His radio crackled again. “Jackson!”  
With an explosive sigh Daniel lifted his radio. “Yeah. On my way.”  
He leaned backwards into a run, snatching his things from the table he’d been working at and ran for the Archive exit.

The moment he was into the hall there was a booming voice over an intercom system. He didn’t need to hear what was said to know that it was a warning about whatever his fellow team members had done, and Daniel made a dash for the Gate chamber.

His boots echoed down the lavish golden halls, the eyes of extravagant figures in towering portraits leering down on him. Skidding into the foyer he spotted several scholars and clerks all searching the area.

It was at that time he regretted handing over his weapon when they had first arrived. He could hear hurried footsteps coming from arches and walkways overhead.

“Daniel!”  
Cam and the others were racing through the foyer from the main entrance. They were not being chased by anyone but that didn’t mean the situation wasn’t urgent. There was certainly a tone of panic in Cam’s voice.

“What happened?” he asked as they neared him. “Where’d you get those weapons?”  
“No time! Stargate! Now!” Cam wound his finger in the air, urging Daniel to fall in line. SG-1 burst through the chamber doors, dispersing into the familiar routine of dialling the DHD and covering their backs.

There were shouts and the thunder of feet coming behind them. Daniel’s gaze swung from Teal’c to Cam to Vala, their strange guns directed at the only entrance, then to Sam who punched in the address for home.

Sam finished the sequence of chevrons and smacked the central crystal. The great stone circle shuddered and moaned and there was a splash of radiant light. Sam quickly keyed in her IDC and before the mob of angry worshipers could stop them, SG-1 were through the Stargate to Earth.

“Close the Iris!” Before Cam could get the whole command out of his mouth there was a fury of bullets whizzing over their heads and cracking against the Gateroom walls. Teal’c dived, catching Vala in one arm and Cam in the other.

Sam and Daniel launched themselves down the plank, hitting the metal grating hard and rolling to the floor. When the Iris closed and the event horizon fizzled away, Cam and Vala both coughed and moaned under Teal’c’s weight.

Cam pushed himself up on his hands. “Uh, heh!” he laughed breathlessly. “Thanks buddy.”  
“Any time,” Teal’c said, lifting himself off his friends.  
Vala groaned and allowed Teal’c to lift her to her feet. She gingerly touched fingers to her chin. “Ah. Ow. That’s gonna bruise.”

Daniel got up on his hands and knees just as Sam was getting to a crouch. Their gaze locked and in those few seconds Daniel considered and decided against asking her if she was okay. She’d tell him she was fine regardless, and in that terse tone that would cut another wound into his heart.

Still on his knees he watched Sam get to her feet and march away. Daniel sighed and looked down at the grey cement floor. A dark discolouring caught his eye. He looked across to where Sam had been and simply stared at the two red hand prints.

He blinked when a smooth, narrow hand was offered to him. Looking up he saw Vala and he smiled appreciatively.

“Thanks,” he said when she whipped him onto his feet as though he were a ragdoll.  
“Don’t mention it,” Vala grinned and twirled on her heel to leave the Gateroom.

General Landry met them in the next corridor and fell in step with Cam.  
“What happened back there, Colonel?” he asked. There was no anger in his voice, but there was concern.

“Oh, you know,” Cam said, waving his hands about as he marched along the line towards the Infirmary. “They say theirs is the one true God, we say check it out, Stargate addresses, then they celebrate with a ritual sacrifice and we kinda stop that from happening and accidently kill one of their priests aaaand they get a little pissed. That pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it, Teal’c?” he said, looking up at the tall Jaffa.

“Accurately,” Teal’c agreed.  
Landry looked at Daniel for some elaboration but the archaeologist held up his hands.  
“Don’t look at me. I wasn’t there,” he said.  
“Well I want to see you all in the briefing room after your exams,” Landry ordered.

Daniel felt electricity snapping over his skin. There was no mistaking the symbols he had seen on Setesh’s Precept. He could never forget that Gate address. Those chevrons, those number and letters were scarred into the back of his skull like a traitorous brand.

He was shaking. This simple incidental discovery could answer a question that had haunted him for so long. It was almost so overwhelming he couldn’t take a full breath.

Finishing his exam with elevated heart rate and blood pressure, Daniel was cleared and he set off for the briefing room. Everyone was gathered when he got there, and he paused at the heads that turned up at his arrival.

With an uncomfortable grimace he took a seat next to Vala and waited for Landry to begin proceedings.  
“So you stopped a sacrifice,” Landry said.  
“That’s right, Sir,” Cam answered, and cast a concerned eye at Sam. She opened and shut her hands on the table and braced herself.

When she looked up Landry was staring right at her and she swallowed. “Uh...”  
“There was a struggle,” Teal’c spoke up for her. “The Priest conducting the ceremony had a dagger. In the chaos he was fatally wounded by his own weapon.”

Landry didn’t blink, and he hadn’t shifted his gaze off Sam. A silence fell heavily over the room until Sam cleared her throat and flexed her fingers, weaving them together.  
“It was me, Sir. He made a desperate attempt to complete the sacrifice and I threw myself between him and the young woman. I tried to...” Sam’s mouth hung open but any words she considered failed to come out.

“It was a reflex,” Landry nodded. “Self defence.”  
Sam seemed to take comfort in Landry’s confidence. There was a collective release of tension in the room all but Daniel shared. He was still shivering in his seat.

“Sir,” he said finally, breaking the silence.  
“Dr Jackson. I’d like to know where you were when all of this was going on,” Landry said, crossing his arms on the table and leaning forward as though to throw all his focus upon the man.  
Daniel stared determinedly at the table surface in front of him. “I was in the Academy archives learning what I could about the progress of the planet’s culture in Setesh’s absence.”

“And did you find anything?” Landry asked, and the mockery in his tone could almost sound like genuine interest. Daniel hissed through his nose, daunted by the question.  
“Yes, in fact.” He rapped his fingers on the table’s edge.  
Landry waited a beat. “Well, what was it?”  
“I found a document written by Setesh hundreds years ago, listing the Gate addresses to planets in his domain.”

Landry wasn’t the only one who took this news as anticlimactic. “I’m afraid I’m failing to see...”  
Daniel interrupted him, not on purpose, but because that was the time he could get his thoughts together and into clear and coherent words.  
“There was an inscription with the last address. It stated that travel to that planet was forbidden and would, essentially, incur Setesh’s immediate wrath.” Daniel had to take in a quick breath and exhale slowly.

“And you want to travel to this planet,” Landry guessed.  
“Actually,” Daniel said, struggling to keep from trembling. What he said next was going to upset people. What he said next was going to make his heart break that little bit more, push Sam that little bit further away, and, if he were honest, she was so far away already he doubted she could see him anymore.

“We’ve already been there.”

He left those words suspended like a mist above the table. He couldn’t look up. He couldn’t look anyone in the eye. He stared at his fingers, clutched over the edge of the table, pressing down so hard he wondered if he would eventually hear bone snap.

Landry said, “Where-”  
“P3X-666.” He heard only his own heart beat. Then as if controlled by some unseen force, he looked across at Sam. He’d forgotten her eyes could be that blue, but the anger he saw in them, well, that he could never forget.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Give it up for the expositional stylings of Vala Mal Doran.

Daniel didn’t know what he was doing. He felt as if every atom in his body were shifting. He was moving at the speed of light when he was standing on the spot. A spot outside Sam’s lab. He was fidgeting and shuffling enough outside the door that Sam had to know he was there.

He clapped his hands behind his head and spat air between his teeth. Then he ducked inside. Sam sat at her desk, referring to schematics as she examined a mechanical device in front of her. It looked alien and broken.

Sam stretched her back, sighed, and set her hands on her lap. “I’m listening,” she said finally, because Daniel had been standing there for too long without saying a word. “Daniel, if you have something to say, say it. Otherwise, I have work to do.”

Daniel winced. She wasn’t usually so harsh. Sometimes they still smiled at each other and meant it. It was only in those moments when they stopped being intergalactic explorers and were just Lt. Colonel Carter and Dr Daniel Jackson that Sam was miles away.

“Okay I’m just gonna...yup.” Daniel held his hands together in prayer and information streamed behind his eyes like scrolling data. Sam leaned back on the stool and tipped her head.  
Daniel thrust his hands outward, “The only thing on that whole planet were those ruins, right?”  
Sam didn’t answer, but Daniel didn’t need her to. He began to pace.

“There had to be a reason Setesh told his people to stay away from it. He had to be hiding something there. Something important.”  
“Maybe the ruins themselves,” Sam suggested with a listless shrug.  
“That’s what I thought, too, at first. We speculate the planet was a sort of holy land for the Ancients, as a kind of layover place on the way to ascension. Presumably, Setesh wouldn’t understand the significance of this, and yet he had enough interest in the planet to waste resources defending it.”

After following Daniel moving about the room Sam closed her eyes, though whether from strain or annoyance he couldn’t tell.

“Now, the other System Lords would have no interest in it either. There were no people to rule, there was no naquadah to mine. But since Setesh’s death someone obviously learned that there was something of worth to be found there and went to recover it.” Daniel held an expectant line on his lips and waited for Sam’s reaction.

She shook her head. “I’m not going to support your request to go back there. General Landry denied it and I agree with that decision,” she turned back to her work, picking up some tool he couldn’t identify and probing the device’s outer shell.

Daniel’s heart pounded. “We owe it to Janet to find out what she died for.”  
There was a metallic clack of the tool hitting the desk as Sam sat straight up on her stool. “She died because she was saving a man’s life and didn’t see the attack coming.” Her eyes were pale, but still shone with light that almost burned through his own.

“No. That’s how she died, not why she died,” he insisted.  
“Why?” Sam breathed, barely strong enough to carry her voice. She looked down into her lap. “Why can’t you let this go?”  
There was a quake to Daniel’s voice when he said, “Because she wouldn’t.”  
Confusion knitted across Sam’s brow and she shook her head. “What?”

“She wouldn’t let me go, Sam. Even when my death was inevitable. And I’m not going to let her go.” He chewed his lip, fighting to keep tears from falling. “Not without learning why those ruins were so important.”

Sam stood up and rounded the desk. She was tall enough that her eyes came almost level with Daniel’s, and she glared at him from somewhere so dark he felt himself freeze all over.  
“They...” Sam’s hushed voice cracked. “Dragged her body...back to the Stargate...knowing we’d come back for her.” Her lips tensed, her eyes shimmering, searching Daniel for something. He couldn’t decide if he was afraid she would find it or afraid it wasn’t there to be found.

“And set her alight.”  
Daniel wouldn’t look away from her. “I know.”  
“I’m not going back there.”  
Daniel couldn’t help but relish this closeness. He couldn’t help but savour looking into Sam’s eyes and seeing her, really seeing her, and not the person she’d stitched together out of broken pieces just to be in the same room as him.

When she turned away Daniel closed his eyes, trapping the moment inside them. He heard her return to her desk and start working. If he didn’t open his eyes again he wouldn’t be able to see his way out. Sensing Sam’s rising impatience Daniel reluctantly took himself from the room and quickly down the narrow corridors.

He stopped, nowhere in particular, a surge of emotion spluttering out of him all at once. When he caught his breath the sirens blared signalling an unscheduled offworld activation. 

 

* * *

 

Cam met Landry in his office and was told to stand at ease. The old General stood from his chair and put his hands on the desk. 

“The Ombos representative, I think his name was Refu, said we had five moon cycles to hand you and your team over to them or they will launch an attack against our planet. Now, I have people telling me that five moon cycles on their planet equates to just under a week on Earth.”

“They drive a hard bargain,” Cam said. Landry snickered.  
“They have a whole armada of ships. We have one. Two on a good day. And the Antarctic outpost is without a ZPM.” The General paced from behind his desk and came to stand at a short distance to Cam.

“We could borrow one from Atlantis. Just for the time of the attack,” Cam suggested.  
“We’re not sure how many ships those Setesh worshippers are going to send. Your own report stated there were nearly a hundred in that one city alone. We’re not even sure there are enough drones in the outpost to contend with so many enemy ships.” Landry turned his hands outwards at his sides. “The free Jaffa can’t help us because the Ori attack on Dakara has left them fragmented and vulnerable. We’re lucky enough Teal’c is willing to stay with us until we can work this crisis out.”

No matter what Landry was saying, there was a beat to his voice that was always cheerful, and gave Cam a sense of optimism regardless of what he was hearing.  
“You could always just hand us over,” Cam smirked.  
“Ready to give up that easily, huh?” Landry smiled and uttered a soft hum of reflection.

Cam frowned and folded his arms. “Sir, I hate to say it, but we’d have a better chance of finding ZPMs in the Pegasus galaxy.”  
Landry gave a nod of consent. “And we’ve sent in a request for Atlantis to send us anything they can spare. Just as we would do for them. The problem is that their whole base of operations runs off the power of those things, and they need them just to function as a unit from day to day.”

“So,” Cam pouted and drew a small curve in the air with his finger, pointing at the door, “I should go tell my team to pack for the slaughterhouse?”  
Landry’s chuckles came deep. “Not just yet. When we’re really desperate we have allies and some favors to call in. Until then, I want to see if we can’t resolve this issue before it leads to an all out war.”

“What do you suggest?” Cam asked, readjusting his folded arms more bracingly.  
Landry slipped behind his desk and pulled out his chair. “We’ll send in another team to determine our chances of mounting a viable diplomatic defence. Refu claims you are to stand trial, but only as accessories to murder. They want to execute Colonel Carter on the spot.”

Cam could only laugh grimly. After seeing how those people planned to sacrifice a poor young woman in the middle of town, he could only imagine their sick and medieval methods of execution.  
“In the meantime,” Landry said, easing down on his chair and settling comfortably, “I have Dr Lee working on Athur’s Mantle to see if we can’t find some more practical uses for that phasing power it has. I’ve yet to ask Carter if she wouldn’t mind helping him out. Perhaps you could deliver that message for me.”

Cam hoped his apprehension didn’t show too clearly on his face. “Yes Sir.”  
“Dismissed.”

 

* * *

 

Vala found it difficult to wind down after missions. Her body wouldn’t allow it. Her blood pumped hotly, senses on alert and her nerves were drawn so tightly she could probably catch a bullet with her teeth, or catch flies with little eating sticks like that old man in that movie she watched with Cam.

She stomped into Daniel’s lab, swinging her arms and moaning in dissatisfaction. She stretched herself across his desk like a languid cat and rolled her head onto an outstretched arm. Daniel’s eyes never lifted from his books, of which he appeared to be reading from all at once.

She watched him silently until Daniel heaved a sigh and collected the tension of his brow into his hand. He ran his palm over his face, covered his mouth and peeped up at Vala. She smiled empathetically, hoping he appreciated that she wasn’t exactly interrupting him.

She looked down and turned one of the open books to read it. “You’re reading about Setesh?”  
Daniel leaned fully back in his chair. “Re-reading. This is mostly all the research I gathered the first time we encountered Setesh.”  
“The first and only time,” Vala said, awe or incredulity marking her voice.

Daniel paused to examine her, wondering where that tone had come from. He supposed the level of victory SG-1 had over the Goa’uld inside a short decade made some mockery of the hundreds and thousands of years other far superior races had fought against them, and the unimaginable number of lives lost. SG-1 had never lost a single member. Well. Not permanently. It was not as if Earth had not suffered causalities.

Daniel decided he could buffer his research off Vala if she insisted on being around him.  
“I don’t exactly have a lot of information on his activity during his time as a System Lord. All I know is that he stripped Isis and Osiris from their hosts, and he got himself stranded on Earth after Ra left.”

Vala continued to read silently from the book. Daniel frowned, her silence unexpected.  
“Uhh...” he stammered, distracted by her uncharacteristic focus on the book, “There is nothing in Earth’s writings about his time here, other than the somewhat mangled version of events between Seth and Osiris and Isis.”

Daniel scrolled down a web page containing artistic representations of Seth as a mighty ruler. “There are a few obscure references to Nephthys, the Goddess of the Death experience, that she and Setesh might have once ruled together, but...what?”

Vala had suddenly looked up from the book in his hands, features tense on the verge of some revelation.  
“What is it?” Daniel probed her again.

 

* * *

 

Sam only agreed to show up at the briefing because Teal’c assured her it would be worthwhile. It didn’t matter that it was an order, she would have found a way to avoid it.

“There may be more to this than either of us first assumed,” Teal’c told her gently, receiving all the hurt and exhaustion Sam was projecting and letting it filter through his calm demeanour like punching bag for emotion.

She sat next to him and only smiled out of reflex because that was how Cam greeted her when he sat opposite her at the table.

“Now,” Landry said, taking his seat. “I only agreed to listen to this because Vala assured me it was relevant to our problem with the Ombosians. So let’s hear it.”

“Okay,” Vala began, hands out across the table. “I think I know what, or more accurately, who was hidden on P3X-666.”  
She scanned each of their faces in turn, apparently disappointed at the subdued response.  
“Well?” Landry said, impatiently.

“We believe it is where Setesh hid a Goa’uld symbiote named Nephthys,” Teal’c spoke up as Vala opened her mouth to reply. Her shoulders sank into a slant.  
Sam looked up at him in surprise. “Who...”  
Vala zealously reclaimed her spotlight. “Setesh stripped her of her host like he did to Osiris and Isis, and trapped her in a canopic jar! At least, those were the rumours.”

“No one could find her,” Teal’c said, “Nephthys was not a System Lord. No one concerned themselves over her sudden disappearance.”  
Sam looked from Teal’c to Vala, expecting her to butt in with more information, but she was chewing her lip.

“Well, who was this Memphis?” Cam asked.  
“Nephthys,” Daniel corrected.  
“Neph...thys...Nephthys,” he said, as though tasting the name on his tongue. “Neph...Gee, kinda hard to say without spitting.” Their leader grinned and glanced about the table but no one was smiling with him so he cleared his throat and asked, “So why do you think she’s who was hidden on P3...that planet?”

“As I said, Nephthys was not a System Lord,” Teal’c began, “But she was able to gain certain influence over other, low ranking Goa’uld who inexplicably rose to great power.”

“Such as?” Landry asked.  
“Marduk,” Vala said, and then pointed enthusiastically, “Anubis.”  
The shock she had expected earlier was finally presented at this announcement.  
“Anubis?” Landry frowned, sitting back in his seat.  
“Wait a minute. You’re telling me Nephthys is the woman behind Anubis?” Cam asked.

“Before his exile and ascension,” Teal’c said.  
“Taught him everything she knew, huh?” Daniel said, “There’s a scary thought.”

“Nephthys was known for her interest in and the collecting of technology of other races. Specifically, Ancient technology. As Daniel Jackson says, she was, presumably, the one who encouraged Anubis to conduct his research into ascension.” Teal’c closed his hands together on the table.

“Yes, yes, that bit is unimportant. Well,” Vala shrugged, “Less important than the fact that Nephthys would often boast of a planet where she had hidden all these wondrous technologies. It used to drive the System Lords mad.”

Cam chuffed, picturing a gang of exasperated System Lords rioting like out of control hockey fans. “Why didn’t they just, I don’t know, torture the location of this planet out of her?” he asked.  
“She possessed technology that made such attempts impossible,” Teal’c explained, turning to him.

“Or at least very difficult,” Vala interjected. “Eventually they saw her as more of a nuisance than a threat. The other Goa’uld stopped believing her.”  
“I assume Setesh was not one of them,” Daniel spoke up suddenly. Light flashed on his glasses as he looked up, and for a brief moment Sam was drawn to him. She looked down quickly when she realized he was returning her gaze.

“Setesh became interested in her. Whether he believed her claims or not was beside the point,” Vala explained. Daniel cocked his head, watching her pick at her fingers.  
“It is believed that she denied him,” Teal’c said, and paused before speaking again. His eyes were especially severe. “But that he beat her into submission.”

Sam was surprised at the way her skin crawled. The Goa’uld were monsters. They were murderous, merciless, soulless monsters and no horrific act they committed on one of their own should surprise her. Yet she had definitely felt that initial surge of rage wash over her, or at least scuttle beneath her skin, and it was uncomfortable to think she’d felt any empathy at all towards one.

“In fact,” Vala said, with a mirthless smile, “If there was one thing Setesh was praised for by the System Lords it was his control over Nephthys.”  
“So what happened?” Landry prompted.  
Vala shrugged. “We can only assume he grew tired of her resistance. He stripped her symbiote from its host and hid her away somewhere.”

“P3X-666,” Daniel said. “I’m sure of it. And someone else was too.”  
“Who?” Landry asked.  
Daniel sat forward in his chair as though he’d been bursting for someone to ask that very question. “It would have to be Ba’al. I mean think about it. Anubis was in power at that point and Ba’al was in his service. Nephthys’ treasure trove of Ancient technology must have been his last desperate attempt to overthrow him.”

Sam shook her head against the rising echo of firing staff weapons. They ceased to be real memories. Just haunting impressions of terror. “No. The only reason Jaffa showed up on the planet was because that probe sent off a transmission before SG-13 destroyed it.”

“And what was the probe doing there?” Daniel asked her. Sam tightened her lips. Daniel wouldn’t be deterred. “It was sent there to search the ruins. To locate Nephthys. And when Ba’al believed that we might find her first he sent everything he had to stop us.”

Sam shuddered. She didn’t know what she believed or how she felt. If what Daniel said was true then Janet was killed because a vile and sinister Goa’uld wanted to teach a reluctant lover a lesson by locking her away in a small dark place for hundreds of years. Janet was killed because Ba’al wanted power over Anubis.

Sam took in a slow breath and closed her eyes. After all this time consoling herself in the fact that even if there was a reason it wouldn’t change the fact that she would never hear Janet’s voice again, never hear her laugh or cry, never see her smile. Now Sam was confronted by a new truth that threatened to undo the past three years of painstaking emotional recovery.

“Assuming you’re right,” she said, managing somehow to keep her voice steady. “There’s no way Ba’al would risk reviving a potential rival without having some insurance.”  
“Oh,” Vala laughed, and the noise was so unexpected everyone looked at her, “The only insurance he needed was the fact that he revived her with nothing. He had all the power. All she had was her new host and, through his small mercy, the clothes on her back.”

“Assuming,” Sam said again, “That Ba’al actually found her and managed to provide her with a new host.”  
Vala leaned over the table to see her around Teal’c. “That’s exactly what he did.”  
Cam blinked. “How do you know that?”  
“Well...because she found me.”

Daniel scrunched his lips together. “And you were going to tell us this...when exactly?”  
Vala glanced sideways and her fingers rapped on the table. “Now?” She looked in turn at each one of their expectant faces.

“You met this Nephthys,” Landry prompted, trying not to let impatience get the better of him.  
“It was a little while before I met you, actually, Daniel,” Vala said, pointing at him across the table. “I was minding my own business, you know...”  
“Scheming something,” Cam offered.

“Right,” Vala flippantly agreed, “And this woman comes up to me, calls me Qetesh. Well. I play along for a while, just to find out who she is, and then I realize. And of course she knew I wasn’t Qetesh anymore. Instead of killing me she buys me a drink. She tells me all about how Ba’al found her and dug her out of some old temple and gave her a host and wrongly assumed how grateful she would be, that she would just reward him with the location of Sekhem.”

Everyone in the room squinted trying to follow Vala’s story. It was only slightly easier to follow than the time she told them about how she got married and was impregnated by the Ori.  
“Wait, what’s Sekhem?” Cam interrupted.  
“The name Nephthys gave to her planet,” Teal’c said.

“The planet where she hid all those alien and Ancient technologies,” Cam validated.  
“Yes, Mitchell, bravo for keeping up. May I continue?” Vala said.  
Cam held out his hand. “Please.”

“She was a little vague on the details. She only told me she escaped on a Tel’tak but that the hyperdrive was damaged. She wanted to employ me,” Vala said, emphasising herself with a helpful indicative gesture, “To find her a new ship.”

Daniel glared. “You don’t mean the Prometheus.”  
Vala frowned. “What? No. I stole that for someone else, you know that. No this was before I met you.”  
“She paid you?” Cam asked, lifting an ankle onto his knee.

“Handsomely,” Vala said, then she pouted regrettably. “Really wish I still had it too.”  
“Had what?” Cam asked.  
“That Kull Warrior Suit.”

“You got that from Nephthys?” Daniel asked. It was not entirely implausible. Nephthys could have procured it during her time in Anubis’s fleet. It was then that Sam gave his scepticism a voice.  
“And she just...gave it to you. For finding her a ship,” she said.  
“How else do you think I could get something like that off one of those things? I’m good, I grant you, but...”

Sam shook her head. “She didn’t just try to kill you?”  
Vala paused and rapped her nails on the table again. “I must admit it was touch and go there for a while. She’s a very scary lady. Even with the new host.”  
Landry sighed impatiently. He felt like he had been having a conversation with a child. “So this secret planet. Sekhem. Do you think Nephthys could have found any ZPMs?”

“It is possible,” Teal’c said.  
“But no one has been able to find it,” Landry said, issuing the challenge to the room.  
“I’ll find it, Sir,” Daniel piped up immediately, just as Landry knew he would. The General regarded Sam briefly, because conversely, her silence was unexpected.

“Good,” he said finally. “And Colonel Carter can help you.”  
The woman looked up, objection on the tip of her tongue. Instead she said, “Yes, Sir,” and Daniel looked strangely nervous.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SG-1 get shot all to hell.

Daniel opened a file on his computer knowing that if Sam weren’t ordered to help him she wouldn’t be looking over his shoulder, a position he found particularly intimate given the distance she liked to put between them in recent years.

He swallowed and spoke cautiously. “From the initial data we received a few years ago from the Tok’ra, Teal’c and Vala were helping catalogue the planetary domains of each of the System Lords. Since so many have fallen, there hasn’t been a great need for us to be so mindful of the regions the planets we visit fall under.”

He clicked on Cronus and brought up a list of addresses. Sam straightened and folded her arms. There was a texture to her exhaled breath that suggested disappointment.  
Daniel sighed inwardly and opened a companion file. “These are the addresses for planets that, as far as we know, never came under the rule of any System Lord.”

“That’s over two thousand addresses,” Sam said. Daniel heard her sigh and pictured her frowning as her footsteps travelled away from him.  
Daniel twirled his thumbs helplessly. “Look. I know you never wanted me to pursue this.”  
“Nephthys would need to be able to guarantee that no one was ever going to find her planet.”

Daniel blinked and swivelled on his chair to look up at her. Sam was pacing thoughtfully, gears spinning inside the beautiful mechanisms of her brain.

“She would have used cloaking technology or...” Daniel checked off with his fingers.  
Sam shook her head. “No. That wouldn’t be enough. To guarantee something can’t be found, you’d have to put it somewhere no one could look.”

When she turned to him, the brilliant blue of her eyes ignited the same spark of inspiration in him that had overcome her. Daniel sat up. “Somewhere no Goa’uld could look, at least.”  
Sam smiled at him. “We should look in Asgard protected space.”

They quickly went to recover the digital documentation provided to them by Thor of all the planets that fell under Asgard protection. The SGC were given this information in the hopes that they could avoid damaging the defences left on those planets, or accidentally revealing too much about a galaxy some people were just not ready to know.

They were supposed to be careful when travelling to any of these planets. It didn’t really stop them messing something up. But the Asgard were a patient race, and it was normally a simple matter of beaming down a new Thor’s Hammer, or the timely re-regulation of an unstable star.

Daniel finished typing in ‘Sekhem’ and hit search.  
The file popped up immediately. Sam chuffed smugly, and Daniel smiled.

Reassembling in the briefing room, Sam explained to everyone how she’d been able to find Sekhem so easily.  
“The Goa’uld feared the superior technology of the Asgard ships. If Nephthys really wanted to keep her planet safe from them, negotiating a treaty with the Asgard was the perfect way.”

Daniel sat at the end of the table, watching her with mixed feelings of pride and sadness. He was grateful that this research was distracting her, but he knew that once their mission was over, and everything returned to normal, she would remember the heartbreaking way he had let her down.

“So we’re going, right?” Cam asked, drumming his hands on the table eagerly.  
“We’re going to waltz into Sekhem and what, ask Nephthys for a ZPM or two?” Vala asked doubtfully.  
“Well, no,” Daniel said, turning around in his chair. “I assumed there would be a bit of...thievery involved.”

“Ooo!” Vala’s face became one enormous grin, “I like it.”  
“Stealing from Nephthys?” Sam grimaced.  
Cam waved his hand dismissively. “She’s a Goa’uld. She’d old hat.”  
Vala turned to him, and pinched the air delicately with her fingers to emphasise her point. “Goa’uld, yes. Old, yes. Very much not a hat.”

“I assure you Colonel Mitchell,” Teal’c said, his low voice wrought in warning. “Nephthys will prove a formidable adversary.”  
“Well we know she has a soft spot for Vala,” Daniel said.

Vala looked at him suddenly, but he was looking at his own nails and smiling to himself as if he’d made a very clever joke.  
Sam looked down at her from in front of the table. “It is unusual for a Goa’uld to make good on their deals.”  
Vala shimmied uncomfortably on her seat. “Yes, well. Let it not be said Vala Mal Doran couldn’t talk herself out of any situation.”

Sam made a face at her and went on. “We might consider that Nephthys doesn’t have any ZPMs at all.”  
Daniel looked up then. “We do know that she has something of worth. Something Ba’al wanted. Something he risked reviving a very dangerous Goa’uld for.”

“Well, I for one would like to know what it is,” Landry said from the other end of the table. He was standing up from his chair even before he said, “Mission granted.”

 

* * *

 

All Daniel remembered was holding that camera, watching the little LCD screen flipped out from its side and Simon Wells’ frantic face. He remembered Janet’s voice. Crouched there on the dirt slope. The leaves. Dull reds, yellows and browns. Mostly dark, dismal browns. He actually remembered them being grey, but he knew they weren’t.

All he could distinctly remember was holding the camera. He was watching that tiny little screen when Janet leaned over Wells to soothe his nerves, to reassure him he was going to be alright. He was watching that small inch by inch and a half picture of a woman telling a man he was going to live.  
And then she was dead.

It happened so quickly that she was dead before Daniel even saw it happen. Those LCD screens showed the recorded image with a small delay. It wasn’t even a second. Janet was dead the moment the blast impacted her chest. She was dead as she was flung backwards into the dirt.

Daniel remembered her eyes. He remembered reaching for her, a cold stuck through him like a spear of ice lodged down his spine. When he reached for her he realized. He was still holding that damn camera.

He shook it away. He held Janet properly, hands on her shoulders. Her head flopped lifelessly, eyes still, dark and empty. Daniel shuddered and screamed again for help. He remembered his head felt like it was burning from the inside out. That was panic. That was the irrational belief that if he wasn’t careful, that if he moved her even slightly, then there was no chance of helping her.

The chance to help her had been before he’d taken out that stupid camera. He knew that. Really. He knew she was gone. His gut knew. He wanted to throw up.

The medics arrived with a gurney. Only one. They’d been sent to pick up Wells. More Jaffa were coming from the tree line. “Dr Jackson! We have to go! You have to leave her! Now! Let’s go! Go!”  
Daniel remembered screaming at a dead body. Then the crackling heat of a staff blast screeched past his ear like an electric bat.

He ducked, afraid. He looked down. He touched Janet’s cheek. He flung himself away but paused. He reached back, fished for the camera and ran.

“Daniel Jackson.”

Daniel looked up, sniffing heavily and quickly dabbed at his eyes. Teal’c walked into the room and stood on the opposite side of the console.  
“Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” Daniel said, smiling quickly. The gentle hum of the ship bridged a brief silence.  
“You must be relieved,” Teal’c said warmly.  
Daniel tried to keep his smile from quivering in confusion.  
“Colonel Carter was telling me that you wished to know what Dr Fraiser died for. Now you know.” It would not have sounded sincere coming from anyone else.

The Jaffa’s stringent manner of language was imbued with emotions as tightly bound to each word as to not exist without them. His words were his feelings, his soul. Daniel began to crumble under the weight of anyone being so willing to expose their soul to him.

He looked down. “Even if we find ZPMs on Sekhem...it’s not like it would mean she didn’t die for nothing.”  
Teal’c took slow and gentle steps from around the console. “Janet Fraiser would not believe she died for nothing. She died in the service of Earth, in the service of this whole galaxy. She died saving one of you, so you could save countless more.”

The low tones of Teal’c’s voice stirred every unshed tear out of Daniel. His words sputtered out in the moments his body were not buffeted by emotion. He looked up at one of his dearest and cherished friends saying, “She died...because I wasn’t protecting her. I should have been watching. Instead I was...that stupid camera! What kind of cover is that? We were under heavy fire from an army of Jaffa and I was...making a movie!”

His head hung low in shame and despair. “She was depending on me to keep her safe while...God, Teal’c. It’s my fault! It’s my fault and...Sam...Sam knows it.”  
The man was already sinking to the floor and Teal’c reached out, catching him, holding him, keeping him together.

Teal’c couldn’t tell Daniel that he was wrong about Sam. He had seen the hurt and betrayal in her eyes as sure as he saw the blue of the sky. It pained him every day knowing that two people he cared for so deeply, loved so strongly, had been torn apart by the actions of his misguided people.

It had fuelled, more than anything else, his determination and resolve for the freedom of Jaffa. But he knew that there was nothing he could do to mend the hearts of Daniel Jackson and Samantha Carter. All he could do was be there for them, be strong for them, and be there to gather the broken pieces so they could mend themselves.

 

* * *

 

Every hour in hyperspace brought them closer to Sekhem. Vala was all for tempting fate, but voluntarily seeking out Nephthys was not so much tempting fate as it was handing fate the knife. And the Goa’uld could do some nasty things with a small blade. Vala had seen it firsthand. She’d even been a part of it. Not that she was a willing participant.

The last time she encountered Nephthys she was lucky to get away with her life. She never liked to admit when she was scared but she was glad that this time her friends would be with her. For what little good it would do. Though they seemed to have a knack for getting out of trouble.

Sitting around on the Odyssey letting her anxiety fester was making her feel sick. Cam was being an adequate distraction with his silly card game but he was too easy to beat.  
“Uno,” she said again, placing down her second last card.

Cam frantically scanned his full hand of cards and glared at her over the top of them. Cautiously he picked one of them out and slowly set it down. Vala slapped her last card down on top of it and Cam burst with disappointment.

“Alright. I’m totally going to win this next round.” He hastily gathered the cards together and began to shuffle.  
Vala released a long, suspended sigh. She perched her cheek on her upright palm. “So who was this Janet woman anyway?”

“She was the Chief Medical Officer at the SGC for seven years,” Cam said, separating the deck into halves and flipping them back together.  
“You ever meet her?”  
“No. But she was close to Daniel, Sam and Teal’c. And General O’Neill too. She saved their lives several times over.”

“Extraordinary woman,” Vala reflected.  
“She was.” Sam swung her leg over the seat next to Vala and sat beside her. Vala turned her head on her palm to face her.  
“What was she like?” she asked.

Sam folded her arms neatly across the table. “Kind. Confident. Nurturing.”  
Vala looked unimpressed. “I feel like I’ve known her all my life.”  
Cam hissed at her from across the table and glared warningly.

Far from taking offence, Sam smiled at the opportunity and encouragement Vala gave her to talk about someone dear to her. “Janet had a way of making you feel safe in the most frightening situation. No matter what was happening you believed her when she said you were going to be okay, that she was going to help you. You didn’t have to worry.”

Vala watched light glimmer in Sam’s eyes, feeling something sharp in her throat. “It would appear the universe lost a very special person.”  
The smile on Sam’s face grew slightly and then her lips came together, a gentle hum of grief uttering on her breath. Vala felt compelled to touch her shoulder, but Cam intersected her gesture by dealing out cards.

“Come on. I’m gonna beat the both of you.” He grinned and Sam chuckled.

 

* * *

 

At the moment the Odyssey came out of hyperspace SG-1 were gathered on the bridge. The vast reach of darkness they saw beyond the shield was not what any of them had expected.

Daniel grinned ear to ear. “She’s cloaked the planet.”

Sam snapped her gaze on him. “Do you have any idea how much power that would take? Cloaking Atlantis alone drains masses of power from a single ZPM. Nephthys would have to have...”  
Sam’s brow creased in a mental race to calculate the answer.

“Hundreds.” Daniel edged towards the shield in fascination.  
Cam snorted. “You’re saying there’s hundreds of ZPMs down there?...Thereish?” Cam gestured vaguely to the empty black.  
“It wouldn’t exactly take hundreds of ZPMs to cloak a whole planet,” Sam insisted cautiously. “But a dozen maybe.”

“Good enough for me,” Cam said, rubbing his hands.  
There was a flash of colour and suddenly the tawny glow of a giant sphere hovered majestically in the darkness.  
“Whoa.” Cam blinked.  
“I-I ran a scan for the planet,” Major Womack stammered.

“Nephthys must have decided there was no point hiding from someone who knew she was there,” Daniel said.  
Colonel Davidson leaned over in his captain’s seat. “She’s not attacking?”  
“The terms of the treaty were clear,” Daniel explained. “She can’t fire on a non Goa’uld ship. Besides it would be in her best interest not to attack us. Doing so would only invite more people to come out here in retaliation and that would expose her planet to the rest of the galaxy, not to mention the Asgard would be well within their rights to eliminate her as a threat.”

Sam scoffed. “The Goa’uld have an annoying habit of finding ways around treaties.”  
Daniel countered. “If what Vala says is true then Nephthys only wants to live the rest of her life in peace. We have our greatest leverage. She lets us go or she’ll have to defend her formerly secret planet from every race in the galaxy.”  
Teal’c stood between them, his voice grave. “Let us hope she values her privacy above our demise.”

Vala picked and twisted her fingers. It was only a small comfort to know that the Asgard treaty protected them as much as it protected Nephthys.  
“Alright,” said Cam, “Beam us down somewhere safe near the most heavily populated area.”

Womack activated the Asgard beam and SG-1 disappeared in a soft sheen of light. Colonel Davidson relaxed into his chair and tapped a finger to the edge of his mouth. If there was any trouble with the beaming destination, Colonel Mitchell would radio.

“Sir.” Major Marks frowned at his console and looked up at the shield. “Sir a second ship just appeared on our scanners.”  
Davidson looked up, trying to spot the ship. He had been afraid of an attack. The Goa’uld weren’t likely to just sit back while a willing target hovered above them.

“We have an incoming transmission,” Marks reported. Davidson nodded to him and Marks played the message on the main screen. The oil black eyes of an Asgard blinked at them.  
“This is Hod of the Asgard. You are in protected space. I must ask you to leave immediately or I will forcibly escort you through hyperspace.”

Marks and Womack and others on his crew eyed Davidson warily.  
“Send a message to SG-1, and open a channel.”  
While Marks opened a channel for Davidson to respond, Womack radioed SG-1. Davidson only hoped that their team wouldn’t need his help while they worked this out with the Asgard.

For that matter, he hoped that the Asgard could be reasoned with.

 

* * *

 

There was light, and everything washed to white. Vala felt her feet sinking and pale colours swam into the glowing haze. She was looking out across a vast desert, pale sand and sky. Sam walked past her, checking the screen of her tablet, and Vala looked around for the others.

They were at the base of a huge red rock formation. It jutted out of the ground like the nose of a sunken Tau’ri cruiser. There was nothing else around for miles and miles.  
“It looks like there might be a city on the other side of this rock,” Sam said, looking up at it.  
Hands resting on his gun, Cam trudged up to her side, looking up at the peak, and then at the wide girth of its base.

“They had to beam us down behind a big ass rock, didn’t they?” he grumbled. “Oh well. Let’s get going.”  
Their boots left a wide trail of divots in which Vala walked. There was even something about the air that seemed insidious. She cast squinting eyes at the white sky and reminded herself that the Odyssey was there, and could beam them to safety if anything went wrong.

“Yep,” Cam was saying into his radio, alerting Vala to whatever was in progress. “Copy that. We’ll proceed down here. Try and hurry back.”  
Vala launched into a half jog to catch up with him. “What was that about?”  
“The Asgard showed up and told the Odyssey to scat. They’ll be back though. They’ll sort it out,” Cam assured her with the confident bump of his fist to the air.

Vala peered about anxiously. “Brilliant.”  
As they rounded the edge of the rock, the horizon opened into more glimmering sand. But perched on that quivering line between ground and sky was a long stone wall.  
Cam swayed dejectedly, and tilted his spine to yell into space. “Close. I said close to the heavily populated area!”  
“Well,” Daniel said, sweeping his sleeve across his sweating brow, “We won’t get any closer standing here all day.”  
Cam glared at him contemptuously and then spat air as he stumbled into a trudging gait.

As they encroached closer and closer on the stone wall, parts of a gleaming city began to poke up from behind it. Sam monitored their progress on her tablet, though found that the glare from the sunlight made it difficult to read.

“Is something wrong, Colonel Carter?” Teal’c asked her.  
Sam tilted the tablet and then tried to bend over it to provide some shadow. “I think...”  
Cam suddenly looked up, gaze darting left and right. “Guys. Do you hear that?”  
Daniel stopped and looked around, and Teal’c, altogether still, tuned his keen senses to anything reverberating on the atmosphere.

“We’ve got life signs coming toward us,” Sam reported. “Fast.”  
Cam spun. “Where?”  
Sam turned around to face the way they had come. Cam didn’t like the way her body twitched back on her heels.  
“There,” she said.

They all turned around and saw, appearing from around the giant rock they had left behind, fast approaching vehicles. They were far enough away to look like tiny beetles, scuttling across the sand, but they could hear the escalating hum of engines.

As Sam edged backward, Teal’c took the single stride it took to put himself in front of her, weapon raised. They all readied their P-90s, apprehensive of the approaching strangers. The narrow brown vehicles looked like jagged rocks on two large wheels. If Cam were going to name them, they were some sort of alien motorbike.

Sunlight flashed off the metal plates protecting the drivers. There was little point in running.  
“Okay,” Cam said, as the group edged back to back, “Maybe they’re just our friendly welcoming party.”

A sound like a gatling gun kicked sand in a line right by their feet.  
“Only if part of the friendly welcome is killing us,” Daniel quipped, hefting his gun.  
They all fired at once, and nothing could be heard for the frenzied exchange of bullets. The bikes came charging towards them, splitting at the middle of their line and firing close enough to whip sand into a blinding, consuming cloud.

Daniel spluttered, firing blind. He was breathing in hot sand. He could feel the ground shake with each bullet. There was a shout behind him, and something struck him in the head.  
He turned and looked down. The vague shape of a body had fallen behind him. Visible through the spinning dust was a growing red stain.

Daniel felt that crippling bolt of ice crash down his spine through his skull. He couldn’t even tell who it was until he heard Sam shout.  
“Cameron!”

She had to look up again, down the black shaft of her gun. Daniel saw her arms and shoulders shaking from the gunfire, and over the top of her weapon he saw one of the bikers hoist an arm. He didn’t hesitate. Daniel took one bracing step and pulled back on the trigger.

The biker slumped and his vehicle roared from beneath him. A second bike crushed the fallen man’s body, but Daniel’s gaze was frozen on Vala, her body jolting with every ribbon of blood that sprayed thickly into the air.

Teal’c caught her in one arm, and extended his weapon outward with the other. In the next second they both slumped to the ground. And Sam turned, her electric eyes locking Daniel in an eternal moment.

Her arms were slack at her sides, her weapon hanging from the buckle on her vest, pointless. Her mouth opened and Daniel strained desperately to catch one sound he would never hear.

Dark red stains bloomed wetly across Sam’s chest. It was only then that Daniel realized the frantic look in her eyes was not pain or shock, but horror. He looked down, suddenly aware of a hotness pulsing in his body.

He felt something else tear through him, jerking him to his knees. He looked up and wanted to see Sam. But she was gone. He looked for her, and saw a body lying face down next to another. Maybe they were people he knew. Maybe he’d never met them.

All Daniel knew was that it was hot. And something really hurt. He felt himself fall and roll onto his back, and sounds bubbled in his head. Drifting across the pale sky was some enormous dark Angel. The span of her glorious wings shielded him from the unrelenting sun. She opened her mouth and sang to him and in a flash of light, he succumbed to her embrace.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cam meets Nephthys and Vala eats a lot of cake.

It was hard to tell how long he had been awake and staring at the ceiling. What took longer to work out was that the ceiling was unusually low. Cam blinked and shifted as his body naturally reacted to regaining consciousness. His limbs struck resistance that sent hollow echoes boxing his hears.

A moment later there was a hiss and a line of light cut down the middle of the ceiling. It grew and grew and he realized the ceiling was opening. Cautiously Cam pulled himself up and swung his arms free.

“Oh.” He looked down over the edge of the golden sarcophagus, and gave it a hearty slap with the whole of his hand. “Another first. This is going in my diary.”   
He was suddenly struck by a strange feeling of being watched, and looking up, he saw two men wearing strange cloth garments.

“Oh, hiya,” Cam said, giving a quick two fingered wave.   
The men stood like stone sentries. Cam popped his mouth. After exchanging a signal between them, the men reached down and slipped their hands under Cam’s arms. He flailed at first but when they set his feet on the ground and released him he was less concerned about being manhandled as he was about the strange clothes he was wearing.

“Ohhh, I’ve had this dream,” he shuddered, appraising the long pale pants and tight strapped boots warily. He picked at and patted the thin undershirt and decorated vest with the same suspicion and then eyed his stern faced companions back and forth. He wiggled a finger. “You guys didn’t...I mean...I’m sure you were very respectful.”

“Come with us,” one of the men said.   
“Yup.” His weapon was gone, but he could feel a weight in a small pouch he discovered around his belt. When he checked it he found his radio had been left there.

Unrestrained, he walked curiously free between the two unarmed men out of the sarcophagus chamber and along a hallway. The base of the walls were a pink hued stone and supported a smooth pale yellow upper wall that captured the light spilling in from slender arched windows.

Their footfalls made satisfying claps against shining white marble, criss-crossed with black and grey veins. Following the men through more and more extravagant halls and chambers, Cam observed hundreds of people bustling about with various tools or burdens, tending to a variety of chores.

He could distinguish at least three distinct uniforms. Some wore simple loose fitting clothes. Others wore decorated garments like himself and a select few, such as the men leading Cam through the lavish building, were dressed in heavily embroidered cloth and dyed silks with golden bands around their head.

“You’re taking me to see Nephthys, right?” Cam amassed. “Any advice?” He looked from one man to the other, but neither responded. “You know, you two would be the worst company stranded on an Island.”

Finally they came to a pair of guarded arched doors. These the guards opened as they approached and Cam was led between two mighty rows of columns towards a throne where a woman sat, resplendent in exotic finery.

Brought before the woman, Cam was permitted time to appreciate the elegant, if ostentatious design of her bodice, accentuating flawless cinnamon skin and voluptuous curves of her decidedly petite frame. Her languidly crossed legs were bare and exposed under a long flowing skirt that had slipped open around her silken thighs.

Her lips, so perfectly sculpted into sharp and devilish points, curved slyly at Cam’s explorative gaze. She swirled her arms from her lap and settled them on the rests of her throne, tilting her head so short, chestnut curls bounced gracefully above her shoulder.

Cam scoffed. “You must be Nephthys.”  
The woman’s eyes glowed.   
“Little short for a God, aren’t you?” he teased boldly.   
Nephthys hummed in amusement. “Little cocky for a man who led his entire team to their deaths.”

Cam clucked his tongue sheepishly. “Touché.”  
“Hm.” Nephthys uncoiled her legs and stood daintily from her throne. Her sandaled feet patted softly down the platform steps. “You remind me of Jack.”  
Cam frowned and grunted in disappointment. “People keep saying that.”

“Then perhaps you should introduce yourself,” Nephthys suggested, coming to stand on the bottom step so that Cam’s eyeline skimmed the top of her head. In spite of this Cam felt himself shrinking by the minute.

“Alright,” Cam said, “I’m Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell.”  
Nephthys’ dark eyes glittered with anticipation. Cam felt his bones ache.   
“The rest of my team...”

“Are being revived,” Nephthys said, “You are lucky I saw you coming. I was able to send one of my patrol ships to pick you up.”  
“Not before we were all shot to hell,” Cam stated, eyeing the Goa’uld with his brow low.   
Nephthys shrugged. “So long as you’re here, I cannot order harm to come to you. That doesn’t mean I won’t indulge in the violent whims of others.”

She extended an enticingly shaped leg to the floor and Cam swallowed anxiously as she came up close to him. He pulled back a little as she reached for his face and pressed a finger between his eyes. “You were luckier than the others. A single shot. Death was instant for you.” She caressed his cheek.

Cam’s gaze followed Nephthys’s fingers down to his chest, where they spread like claws against firm flesh. “One poor woman was torn apart. Bullets shredding through her body.”

Her finger poking at his chest suggested the haphazard pattern she described, eyes glazed with morbid fascination.   
Cam smiled thinly and looked down at the God. “You didn’t have to revive us.”  
Nephthys flattened her hand against him and smiled. “It will be more fun this way.”

There was no time to negotiate the expression on her face. She was already turning away from him.   
“My priests will take you to the guests’ quarters.” At the top of the platform she faced him once more. “As I said, the injuries your friends sustained were far worse than your own. They will take longer to heal.”

“Are we prisoners?”  
A streak of delight swept across Nephthys’ pretty face. “Circumstances being as they are, you might consider yourselves my very special guests. I’m aware of the trouble your ship encountered with the Asgard. You may stay here until your people are permitted to return for you.”

“Actually,” Cam spoke up as Nephthys was about to turn from him again. “We’re here to negotiate with you.”  
A slender eyebrow lifted.

 

* * *

 

Cam lay on a luxurious sofa in the antechamber of what he was told were the guest quarters. It was a wide, round open area, furnished with chairs and rugs and pillows and potted plants. Cam sputtered his lips, bored.

The first to return was Teal’c, who towered between the priests escorting him through the doors.   
“Cameron Mitchell,” Teal’c said in relief. Cam swung his legs and sat up as Teal’c hurried towards him, looking all around. “Colonel Carter? Daniel Jackson?”  
Cam held up and waved his hands. “They’re not here. Yet,” he added when Teal’c turned to him in a panic. “I’m sure they’ll be here soon. Their wounds were probably more severe than ours.”

Teal’c sat down beside him and clasped his hands. “That does very little to comfort me.”  
Cam chewed his lip. “Yeah. Me neither.” He put a consoling hand on his friend’s back. “I’m sure they’ll be here soon.”

Now that he was touching him, Cam noticed what Teal’c was wearing. His grey pants were made of an opulent fabric, and his chest was bare under his vest. Cam gave a nod. “Nice threads.”  
Teal’c’s head turned slowly and Cam shuffled away from his loathsome glare.

When the door next opened Sam was welcomed by Teal’c standing attentively. When she came close enough he held her shoulder and looked her up and down as though he needed to reinscribe her entire being into his senses.

“I’m fine, Teal’c.” She looked like she was going to insist again, but she smiled and gave the man more time to assure himself. Daniel and Vala soon joined them. Daniel was dressed much in the same way as Cam.

Sam and Vala had been clothed in pale blouses which dipped enticingly across their chests and beautifully embroidered tunics which revealed their slender legs.

After spending a sinful moment admiring the women, Cam cleared his throat and announced his meeting with Nephthys.

Daniel folded his arms. “So, what was she like?” His voice was rather chirpy for a man who was dead only minutes ago. Cam supposed he was used to it.   
He propped his hands on his hips and cocked his head. “Short?”  
Vala narrowed her eyes with intrigue. “Isn’t she though,” she agreed.

“She knows us,” Cam went on, “Or she knows you guys. She said I reminded her of Jack.”  
Teal’c’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. Sam blinked and frowned, staring anxiously into space before setting her gaze on Cam.   
“That’s not possible,” she said.  
“SG-1 has never encountered Nephthys,” Teal’c confirmed.

The looks exchanged between Sam, Daniel and Teal’c gave Cam the most unnerving feeling he’d ever experienced. Sam had gone so pale, the colour had drained even from her eyes, and watching her, Daniel looked overcome by the same sickening thought.

“Oh,” he shook his head, “Oh, you don’t think. No. No...”  
If he had ever heard a sadder, more desperate sound in his life, Cam couldn’t think of it. The devastation and despair laced in the single expression that gasped from Sam’s lips made his heart twist.

“Daniel...”

Daniel collapsed into the armchair behind him, head buried in his heads, pleading to someone who, evidently, was not answering.   
“What is it?” Vala said, edging forward with concern. “What don’t you think?” She looked up at Sam and Teal’c in turn, then helplessly at Cam.

“No,” Daniel said again behind his hands. “No, we saw...” He looked up, finding Sam and Teal’c and telling them, “We saw her...” He held their gazes for a long time but his features crumbled. “Oh god.” He covered his face in his hands again.

“The uh...” Sam closed her eyes against the difficulty of her next words. “...Body...was reduced to ash. Janet’s tags were... Ba’al must have only made it look like...” she watched Daniel rocking in denial through shimmering eyes.

There was a certain amount of courage needed to face such an idea. It was an amount Sam just didn’t have. She hated herself for being so cowardly.

“I uhh,” Cam began gently, so as not to aggravate already fragile emotions. “I told Nephthys we were here to negotiate. She told me she would contact us through one of her priests when she was ready. In the mean time I think we should get out of here. Go for a walk in town. Clear our heads.”

Vala, eager to get as far away from Nephthys as possible, rose readily to her feet. “Good idea.”  
“Sam. Teal’c.” Cam urged them. They both nodded silently and moved around the sofa.

It took a lot more persuading to get Daniel to join them. The man was a mess. He didn’t speak a single word, or look up from his feet, as a priest guided them through the crowded market streets.

Sam and Teal’c walked together, but both seemed otherwise disengaged from the world. Vala walked at Cam’s side, and in striking contrast, fidgeted with restless energy.   
“You okay?” he asked her.   
“What?” Vala didn’t even look at him initially. Then she met his querying frown with an awkward smile. “Oh, I’m fine. Never better. We’re stranded on a planet lightyears away from home, and we’re houseguests for a Goa’uld. And not just any Goa’uld. Nephthys! Of all the...sick, twisted, psychotic, sadistic, evil...” Vala fused her lips together in a pout of fury and Cam had to chuckle.

“She didn’t seem that bad to me,” he said.  
Vala laughed dryly. “Ah. Of course. That’s what she wants you to think. She’s cunning, that one. Sly. You never know what she’s really up to and when you do, it’s already decades too late.”  
Cam squirted air between his lips. “Sounds like you two have a history.”

“Well,” Vala bobbed her head to the side. “I knew her only a short time. But I know what she’s capable of. She’s...scary.”

Cam couldn’t counter it with flippancy. Her concern was so earnest and her fear so genuine, Cam was reminded of how unsettled he felt as Nephthys described the delight she took at finding them dead in the desert.

With a churning in his gut he realized that the woman she had mentioned suffering the most had been Vala. She had been the last to join them, presumably needing more time in the sarcophagus to heal and revive.

“Don’t worry,” he said to her, struck by the hope and trust in her eyes. “Nephthys can’t do anything to us. Asgard treaty, remember?”  
Vala scoffed and watched the sand washed stones under her feet. “Maybe she can’t physically harm us or hold us here against our will. But she will find a way to hurt us. Believe me.”

Their priest guide took them to a communal dining hall. The sand covered stone road continued inside a building filled with heavy wooden tables around a central, decorative fountain. People moved about carrying bronze trays of food and drink, voices swelled like waves rolling against the shore, and the atmosphere was entirely too cheerful for the weight of dread pressing down on SG-1.

They sat miserably at a table, picking at fruit or cakes and sipping dolefully from dented metal cups. Cam felt useless. He hoped some food and drink might at least alleviate some of their tension.

If the misery of Sam, Daniel and Teal’c concerned him, the exuberance by which Vala stuffed her face with cakes and gulped mouthfuls of the fruity beverage was just as worrying.

“What does she look like?”   
Cam looked up at Sam’s tentative question.   
“Well,” Vala said, wiping her mouth. “She’s got sort of...” She was waving fingers above her shoulder to indicate, Cam assumed, hair length, but he stilled it in his grasp and eyed her sternly.

He looked across at Sam sympathetically. “Even if we told you, you still wouldn’t know for sure until you saw her for yourself.”  
“You should know what she looks like,” Sam said accusingly. “You’ve read all our mission reports. You must have read her file, seen her profile picture.”

“I really just skimmed,” Cam said. Responding to the disappointment on Sam’s face he said, “I read the reports, yes. But I didn’t see it necessary to read the personnel files of every military figure mentioned in them.”  
Sam’s head drooped, gaze once more falling into her lap.

Vala stopped eating long enough to empathise with Sam’s pain.   
“I’m not sure if it will help at all, but...If Nephthys has taken your friend as a host there’s a chance she can be saved.”

Sam scoffed shamefully. “That’s not...We abandoned her to a fate worse than death. Imprisoned in her own body for three years, forced to commit god knows what...utterly powerless to stop it.”  
Teal’c turned to look down at her and then looked away distantly.

Vala reached her hand across the table, hoping that closeness would comfort her. “You have hope, Sam.” She stared at her, so that their gaze would lock when she finally looked up. Then Vala said, “Which is more than you had yesterday.”

Still casting a hopeless look across the hall, Teal’c said, “And if Nephthys is not who we fear her to be?”  
Sam smiled without humour and shook her head. “I don’t know if I would be relieved or...” her head bowed once again in shame.

Vala ached and tried to smile. “It is not a bad thing to hope there is a chance your friend is alive and can be saved.” She looked at Daniel. “That does not make you bad people.”  
Daniel hugged himself and shrank deeper into shadow.

Cam couldn’t stand it. As a leader he thought he was prepared for anything, and being a member of an SG unit meant allowing for a more broad interpretation of the term than was acceptable, quite frankly. Since Vala had finished off the cakes, Cam left the table, ostensibly to fetch more.

He found their priest guide at the counters.   
“Was wondering if you could tell me something,” Cam said.   
The priest was a young man, perhaps a year into his twenties, and jittered with enthusiasm. “I will endeavour to tell you what I can.”

Cam’s brows bobbed, a little taken back by his response. “Great. Those guys that attacked us outside the city, who were they?”  
“Heretics who roam the desert. They prey on anyone found outside the city walls.”  
Cam slipped onto the barstool next to him, settling in for the conversation. “Why doesn’t Nephthys just use her godly powers to eliminate them?”

The priest nodded, understanding Cam’s doubt. “The mere existence of the heretics is enough to keep people leaving the city. They are the perfect shepherds herding her flock.”  
Cam smiled tensely. “Of course.”

There was a sudden spark to the young priest’s eyes as he leaned forward confidentially. Cam bowed a little to hear the lowered tone of his voice.   
“I know you and your friends do not believe Nephthys is a God,” he said, and looked away surreptitiously. “I am part of a modest group who also believe Nephthys is not a true God. We have plans to overthrow her. I wonder if we might employ your help.”

“Whoa, hang on there, Sparky,” Cam said. “Taking on a Goa’uld isn’t easy.”  
“Goa’uld?” The priest turned the word slowly in his mouth. “Is that what you call devils like her?”  
“She’s not a devil. There’s a snake in her head controlling her. We call it a Goa’uld symbiote.”

Cam slumped at the incomprehension displayed on the man’s face.   
“Goa’uld symbiote. It’s sort of yay big,” Cam said, holding his palms apart. “Nasty little mouth. Gets in through the back of the neck. Look, if you and your buddies are planning an attack you need to hold off.”

Clasping his hands together on the counter the priest glanced across the bar again. “Yes. For whatever reason Nephthys has not treated you with the same hostility she has treated other guests. At first I thought this was because you were her allies. But you say that you know she is not a God, and you talk about her without fear. If she trusts you enough to let you roam the city and the palace freely then perhaps my people and I can use this to our advantage.”

For the first time in a long while, Cam felt a small brush of relief. “Let me speak with my team. You try and arrange a way to lead us to meet your people.”  
The priest grimaced. “That may be difficult. Even I do not leave the city walls...”  
“We don’t help with your strike until we meet your friends. Let them know we want to meet them and where we can find them. Let us figure out how.”

“Very well,” the priest condoned.   
“You got a name?” Cam asked.   
“Shu.”

Cam pressed his tongue behind his top teeth and tried to keep a straight face. “Shu,” he said slowly. He smiled and turned off the stool. “Nice to meet you, Shu.”  
“And you, Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell,” Shu said, smiling.   
“Cam is fine.”

Cam returned to the table. The moment he sat down, his radio crackled.   
“SG-1, this is Colonel Davidson.”  
Cam took the radio from its pouch. “This is Mitchell. Nice to hear from you again.”

The others looked up at the news. Vala looked especially relieved.   
“The Asgard have permitted us to stay cloaked above the planet until Nephthys decides our negotiations are over,” Davidson reported.   
“Copy that. We’ll be in touch.”

It wasn’t much, but it was some of the better news they’d heard all day. He still dreaded their meeting with Nephthys.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam remembers "doing the dishes" with Janet.

Her friendship with Janet was the closest and dearest relationship Sam could remember having with a woman. In a predominantly male military environment it was far easier to be friends with men. Her female peers were as competitive and driven to prove themselves as she was, and to them, Sam was another rung to climb.

Her intelligence and success invariably isolated her in the Air Force. At the time that was how she measured her own worth. Her lack of friends meant she was better than them. She was exactly the person she wanted to be, doing exactly what she wanted to do.

Janet’s easy smile and affectionate nature was hard for Sam to reconcile. In spite of her hesitance, Janet had clearly decided they were best friends, and it didn’t matter that it took Sam at least a year to accept it.

Sam wasn’t used to female companionship. The whole notion was as foreign to her as the new worlds she explored through the Stargate. But it was also just as fascinating. She found herself exploring Janet, examining her and their budding relationship like some discovery she had made offworld.

Her eyes always lingered on the doctor. A quick glance in passing wasn’t without the unconscious perusal of her form. Sam felt the subtle tingles and shivers over her own skin, the tightening and clenching of her own muscles, the prickle of heat in her cheeks at the prospect before her.

It was not that Sam wasn’t aware of what was happening, or of what it meant when she ran her gaze indulgently over Janet’s body. But it was easy enough to resist acknowledging it. Over the years, the frequency with which Sam found herself in Janet’s company exponentially increased, and it was pointless to deny that the doctor was exceedingly beautiful.

Even if military regulations were not an issue, Sam could be in love with Janet and be perfectly happy alone. Nothing needed to happen. Nothing needed to change. Sam was absolutely happy in this moment, in Janet’s living room, sitting on Janet’s sofa.

The doctor was curled up against the edge of the sofa, legs hooked beside her, pale grey sweatpants clinging tightly to her thighs. Sam’s mouth suddenly filled and she swallowed, gasping silently.

Janet was so enthralled by the drama unfolding on television Sam had been able to look at her unnoticed for the better part of the hour. Sam herself was bundled tightly together at the other end of the sofa.

She had noticed a while ago that the crease and slack of Janet’s plain black top opened the neckline in such a way Sam could see right down into the woman’s unsupported cleavage. Sam drew the tip of her tongue behind her lips, imagining the weight of a breast in her hand and the soft yield of supple flesh.

Sam perched her chin between her knees and rubbed between her toes. She had no idea what was happening in the show. It looked like the characters were closing a case, solving the crime. There was a shuffle and Sam felt movement on the sofa.

She looked down and saw one of Janet’s bare feet inches from her own ass. Sam smirked to herself, thinking that Janet was the kind of woman who would spread out in bed and end up pushing her lover to the very edge of the mattress. With an impish grin on her face, Sam indulged in the fantasy of being in bed with Janet.

She looked back at the television just as the scene faded to black and the closing credits came up. Janet sighed and stretched as she sat up, accidently poking Sam in the ass with her toe.

Janet laughed. “Oops! Sorry.”  
Sam loved the way Janet grinned. “You did that on purpose.”  
Janet puffed at her dismissively and reached for the remote. “Oh, I’m too old for more childish arguments.” She yawned and Sam stared at her back.

The waistband of Janet’s sweat pants had shifted low enough that she could see the defining dip between prefect cheeks. Sam had to wrangle her own arm to keep from plunging her hand down the exposed gap.

Janet reached for the glasses of half drunk wine they had shared and stood up. “Grab the plates and meet me in the kitchen,” she instructed on her way from the living room. Sam smiled to herself and did as she was told.

Bringing the plates to the kitchen, she found Janet already running the sink, hot steam billowing up around her. Sam helpfully placed the plates at the edge of the sink for her and then stood back with her fingers in her back pockets.

“Oh sure,” Janet said, “Let me do all the work.”  
Sam bit her lip sheepishly and went to pick up a tablecloth. “Sorry.”  
While Janet cleaned, Sam dried and put things away into cupboards with the same comfort and familiarity she had in her own kitchen.

Janet joined her in drying and cleaning up so that when she put the last plate away, she turned to find Sam watching her. She ignored it at first, brushing off the cloth and hanging it away under the sink. She reached for the one still clutched in Sam’s fingers and did the same.

“What?” Janet said finally, because Sam was still watching her. Janet turned around against the sink and set her head at an inquisitive angle.

Sam could feel something moving through her like a current. She fidgeted curiously, restlessly. Her head swayed from one shoulder to the other, eyes narrowing briefly, lips tensing for a second.

Janet couldn’t interpret Sam’s behaviour. Sam was only vaguely aware of her confusion and concern, but more acutely appreciated how the emotions textured her face and the allure it had over her.

Sam hadn’t known how close she was getting until Janet began to lean back, bending her spine over the sharp edge of the counter. The current was still flowing in her veins like bubbling, fizzing liquid.

It hadn’t got any faster or slower and Sam knew it wouldn’t take much to stop herself, but now that she was this close she had to keep going or never come this far again.

Sam eyed the contours of Janet’s beautiful features, looking all over as though deciding where to go first. With one last step her hands drifted light as air and Janet made a small noise when they came to rest on her shoulders.

Sam felt her heart thudding. She blinked the surprise from her eyes. She never believed she could make such a move, but from here there was nowhere else to go. From the shimmer in Janet’s dark brown eyes, she knew it as well.

The doctor was shivering. Sam could feel every irregular twitch and shudder of her body as she eyed Sam, anxiously waiting. Sam drifted closer, her head tilting as her hands feathered along Janet’s neck and cupped her jaw to ease her back and make her ready for what she was about to do.

Sam exhaled sensually at the first brush of her upper lip against Janet’s, pulling away the barest degree. Pausing there, she felt the soft puffs of Janet’s hot breath. The woman’s heart must have been racing.

If only to prevent Janet from hyperventilating, Sam shut her eyes and stilled Janet’s breath with her mouth, making her moan. The kiss was soft and exquisitely brief.

Janet’s eyes were lidded and fluttered open as Sam stepped away from her. Sam stumbled against the kitchen island. Suddenly her heart was hammering in her chest. She felt hot all over, and a sharp pain scalded at the base of her skull like she had been skewered by an iron poker.

The implications of what she had done struck Sam like a truck. Janet could ruin her life. She could ruin Janet’s life. She could lose everything she had ever loved.

She would lose the Stargate. Daniel, Jack and Teal’c would never be a part of her life the way they were now. And her father. Her contact with him was limited enough without her forced removal from the military and the Stargate Program.

Tears stinging her eyes she hurried from the room. Throwing herself at the front door she pulled it open and flung herself out into the cold.

She walked quickly, vision impaired by the burning film of salt water. She jerked to a stop when Janet suddenly jumped out in front of her.

Sam burned under the stern scrutiny of the doctor’s indefinable gaze. Eventually that nausea turned to curiosity. Janet was simply staring at her, the same sense of urgency glittering in her eyes that Sam had felt only moments ago.

Sam counted five heartbeats and arched forward. Janet’s fingers tensed on her shoulders, using her as a brace to perch on her toes. As their lips met again, Sam slipped her hands around Janet’s back. Her body felt more incredible than she imagined it. She felt her all over, tasting her sweetly.

When they parted for breath Janet gently kissed each of her tear stained cheeks in turn. Sam hadn’t realized until then she had begun to cry. She felt her skin sizzle as Janet settled onto her heels licking her lips.

Sam blinked languidly. She would faint if she had to stand much longer. Janet stepped aside without a word and Sam walked the rest of the way to her car with weak knees. Trembling, she finally worked they key into the ignition and wondered if Janet was watching her when she drove away.

Vala swung into the open doorway, but paused at the sight of Sam lying on the bed in tears. Sam sat up, hastily dabbing sleeves to her eyes.

“Sam? The priest is here to take us to see Nephthys.” She winced as Sam swallowed and looked suddenly ill. “Sam. Sam?”  
When Sam didn’t respond Vala came to kneel at her feet. She placed her hands firmly on Sam’s knees. She had to give them a firm shake before Sam gasped and her eyes came to focus on her.

“We’ll all be there. Together. None of you have to face this alone. If Nephthys’ host truly is your friend we will work this out together.” Vala gave Sam’s knees a squeeze as she smiled.

Sam nodded but started to shake. “I know. It’s just...I don’t...” she wiped a finger at the corner of her eye. “I don’t even know what I’m hoping to see.” She cringed shamefully.  
Vala felt her heart twist. She reached for and drew Sam’s hands back to her lap, resting her own over them.

“I blamed Daniel,” Sam said suddenly.  
Vala didn’t respond. She just listened.  
Sam sniffed but didn’t have the heart to withdraw her hands from Vala’s to wipe her tears away. “I blamed him. I still do. I can’t help it. And now I’m sitting here and...part of me is actually hoping that someone I cared about was violated by a Goa’uld...” Sam’s mouth hung open in the horror of that statement. “What sort of person...?”

It was true, the time Vala had spent powerless in her own body, a prisoner unable to move freely to express the fear and desperation and madness slowly destroying her was the most horrible experience of her life.

But so long as there were people willing to fight the Goa’uld, so long as the Goa’uld fought amongst each other, Vala had hope it would one day end. In death or in freedom, it didn’t particularly matter to her.

Now that she was free, with all that horror behind her, finding Daniel, finding Sam and Teal’c and Cameron and making a home on Earth was a dream she hadn’t ever dared. She still had to pinch herself. She still feared falling asleep at night waking to find herself trapped once again.

But that fear lessened with each passing day. She knew that if she were ever in trouble, no matter the dangers, Daniel, Sam, Teal’c and Cameron would come for her. They would find her.

Vala stood up and sat down on the bed next to Sam, pulling her close and holding her. Resisting at first, Sam sighed and rested against her shoulder.  
The woman who, for hundreds of years was denied a shred of human closeness and compassion, brushed the short locks of Sam’s hair and snuggled her cheek against the top of her head.

“You are not a bad person, Sam.” As Sam sniffed Vala rocked her gently. “You have a broken heart.”  
Vala heard Sam’s emotionally taut whimper and felt her hands slip around her back. Vala’s tortured heart shuddered to accommodate the depth of Sam’s affection. She closed her eyes to keep her tears falling into Sam’s hair.

 

* * *

 

“You keep a God waiting?” The priest’s disdain spilled like froth from his mouth.

Cam glared at the priest. “Teal’c. Go see what’s up.”  
Teal’c bowed and went obediently to Sam’s designated room. When he peered into the open door he saw the women embracing.

He backed out of sight a little, and carefully peered around again. Vala eased Sam back, sweeping her hair, and using her sleeves dry and cup Sam’s cheeks. At that angle Vala spotted Teal’c watching them and she smiled at him reassuringly as Sam looked down.

Teal’c nodded to her and returned to the main chamber. “They will be here shortly.”  
Cam sighed. Daniel was slumped in the armchair, curled in on himself like a lost or abandoned child.

The sooner this meeting was over with, the better. Finally assembled, the priest led SG-1 back through the huge palace to the throne room. The closing doors gave a hollow grunt as they were closed in and Cam leaned from one foot to the other as he turned about in the belly of the chamber.

“We keep her waiting. Yeah right.” Finishing a full rotation, he caught Daniel distancing himself from the others. His closed in form and shuffling feet were an alarming contrast to the spirit he had expressed up until landing on the planet. Even in the full wash of light the man seemed perpetually in shadow.

Teal’c stood with hands at his back, vigilant and poised less for a physical threat than the emotional blow. There was balance to his stance suggesting he had spent time in kelno’reem preparing mind, body and soul for this encounter.

Sam paced about slowly with her head down, chewing on a nail. Vala came up to Cam, shaking out her hands as though to whip water from them.

She turned her shoulder and spoke in a hushed voice. “This could go very badly.”  
“Tell me about it.”  
“If it is her, then she would know exactly what a revelation like this would do to them.” Vala bent at the waist to indicate where the rest of their team stood. “This could all just be her sick little game and she has absolutely no intention of negotiating with us.”

Cam hissed a small laugh. “That did occur to me.”  
Vala looked up at him, her storm touched eyes expressive. “Nephthys is under Asgard protection. All she would have to do is say the word and they beam us out of here.” She fluttered a hand up to the ceiling. “And the treaty will prevent us from ever trying to remove her symbiote. I mean the strain on the Tau’ri Asgard alliance alone...”

Cam spat at the floor and put his hands on his hips. “I know. But we might all be getting worked up over nothing. We won’t know for sure until...”

The clank of the throne room doors opening tugged every pair of eyes towards the sound. There they stayed, unable to veer from the sight of the woman who sauntered towards them.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Negotiations don't exactly go well.

The grace of her step made it an eternity before Nephthys walked the length of the hall and stood before her devastated audience. The ashen looks on their faces sent visible shivers of delight from the Goa’uld’s fingers to her toes.

Examining their faces, Cam couldn’t tell if the expressions of his team were of horror or relief. He looked down at Vala but she, too, was seized by an unsettling strain on her features.

“Janet Fraiser.” Teal’c’s voice compelled even the streaming sunlight to dim. Cam felt all the hope he was holding inside simply drop. His crestfallen gaze swept the marble floor.

Low cackles punctured their veil of grief. “You finally showed up,” she said, coming to stand before them. Sam was watching a waking nightmare. The woman she loved glowed beautifully, radiant and breathtaking, but her every movement, every articulation of her body was frighteningly alien.

She could hear her heart ripping apart. The once tough muscles unravelling, sinews breaking, arteries snapping, and she bled.

“I knew if anyone was going to be able to find Sekhem it would be you. SG-1. I admit, though, I was starting to have my doubts.” Nephthys tipped her head to the side. “Or were they Janet’s doubts? Hm.”

The too familiar voice burned in Sam’s ears, piercing and painful. She wanted to block it out, and at the same time, she wanted to hear more. She wanted to filter the waves and find Janet there somewhere. To hear her say her name, to hear Janet telling her she was okay.

Nephthys crossed one foot over her other and began to pace along their fractured line. “But here you are. Sam. Teal’c. Daniel.”  
It were as if she fired an arrow with utterance of each name, brutally striking each of them in the heart.

“Such a shame Jack isn’t with you.” Nephthys put her hands behind her back. “Would have been such a nice reunion.”  
“You can fight it, Janet Fraiser. You can overcome her control,” Teal’c asserted.

“Oh,” the Goa’uld smiled wickedly. “If you only knew how desperately she is trying but...she is hardly strong enough. Not that I don’t admire her for making the attempt.” Her gaze drifted upward as though hearing far off sounds. “Poor thing. She’s going to exhaust herself.”

Cam snarled and stepped forward. “Alright, stop this.”  
Nephthys spun around, facing him gleefully. “Oh, I’m just getting started Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell. Trapped in stasis for over a thousand years, I’m finally free and I’m going to have my fun. Starting with...Daniel.”

The party seemed to break and leave Daniel standing alone as Nephthys stalked upon him. Daniel shook his head imploringly, but every step Nephthys took towards him proved it was futile.   
“You were there to provide cover for a doctor and a wounded soldier. The three of you were easy targets in the middle of heavy fire.”

Daniel grit his teeth and clenched every muscle in his face as though it could unmake the Goa’uld’s words.

“And you thought it was an appropriate time to start filming for that ridiculous documentary? A documentary no one was ever going to see no less.” She scoffed as Daniel sputtered in despair. “Was it worth it? Did those movie makers get the dramatic footage they were so desperate for? Did Janet’s death meet satisfy their requirements?”

These last words tore a wail of regret from the man. His eyes opened and he shook his head helplessly. “I’m sorry. I am so...so sorry!”

Nephthys leaned in closer, her voice darkening in the intimate space between their faces. “She died because of you, Daniel. As if that weren’t bad enough, you abandoned her. Whatever happened to leaving no one behind? Janet Fraiser is a host to a Goa’uld because of you.”

Daniel just stared. The light in his eyes flickered on the verge of going out altogether. Satisfied his pain was sufficient, Nephthys smirked.

“Stop this!” Vala barked from across the room. “Stop this now!”  
Nephthys glanced over her shoulder and her smile suddenly sweetened. The expression gave Vala pause, and her confidence came immediately undone. She shuffled anxiously as Nephthys chirped in amusement.

“Oh Qetesh,” she sang.   
Cam cast narrow eyes from Nephthys to Vala.   
“You never did learn to wait your turn.” With a coy smile she looked back at Daniel.

A tear trickled silently down his cheek and Nephthys pretended to look sympathetic before she asked, “Do you want to know what happened after you ran away? After you left her there in the dirt?”

Sam held her breath. It was the last thing she wanted to know. She wanted to charge at her, stop her from saying anything more. But it was as though something had clamped its jaws over her feet like a phantom steel trap.

  
Nephthys continued, “The Jaffa came. She was the only one left. Ba’al knew how valuable she would be. The information she had on the SGC, on Earth...But that was only if he couldn’t locate me.”

The Goa’uld furrowed her brow and looked down curiously. Her tone almost sounded sad. “But he did. He took Janet Fraiser and revived her using the sarcophagus...”

 

* * *

 

Bathed suddenly in light Janet gasped and scrambled fearfully. She was contained. Movement restricted. She sucked in a breath to scream but there was a clank. The sound of stone on stone accompanied a rush of air as the light broke apart and she could see the texture and detail of an unfamiliar ceiling.

Immediately there were arms reaching for her, hands grabbing at her, roughly removing her from confinement. She kicked and struggled, shouting. Her feet touched the ground and she tugged and twisted in the unbreakable grasp of strange men.

Jaffa, she realized. They brought her deep into a strange doorless cell, tossing her to the floor. Janet fell hard against her outstretched hands and knees, painfully jarring bone. She winced and clenched her teeth through the pain and looked up to see the Jaffa marching away.

One of them turned and activated something outside the wall. Bile rose from the pit of her stomach and struck the back of her throat as shifting gravity yanked her against the back wall. Janet lay on her back, debilitated by nausea.

She blinked up at the cell entrance, suddenly above her, and calmly pieced together what had happened. She was in the commissary with Bregman, the film maker. He was flirting with her and she was tickled with anticipation of teasing Sam about it.

Then she ended up here. It was too strange. She was missing something. She tried to think, tried to stay calm, scroll through her memories. She remembered she was called through the Stargate. There was a battle and a wounded soldier and a noise unlike anything she had ever heard.

Janet’s eyes suddenly flashed. “Oh. Right. I was fucking shot.” She lay fuming spitefully for a moment until, like the gravity in her cell, the enormity of her situation suddenly made her sick.

She was aware of Jack O’Neill’s ordeal aboard Ba’al’s Ha’tak vessel. She didn’t know exactly whose ship she was on, but it didn’t change the fact that she could be tortured for information about Earth and the SGC.

She wasn’t trained to withstand such extracting methods. Her threshold for pain was nowhere near the limits Jack could endure. The ground beneath her rolled and swelled like ocean. Her head began to swim. She was sinking.

Her legs crumpled like paper beneath her and her face hit the floor hard. The gravity had shifted again. Jaffa marched towards her. Fretting she pushed herself up, scrambling back against what had once been the floor, as though it could provide her some refuge, some place she could claim sanctuary.

Their hands felt around her, digging ruthlessly into her flesh and dragging her to her feet. The twisting, turning journey through the mothership corridors left her frantic and disoriented. Eventually she was carried into what appeared to be a Goa’uld lab.

A man in a slim dark suit turned from an exam table and smiled at her. “Ah. Sorry to keep you waiting.” Everything about him was the perfect picture of sophistication. Janet had never seen a Goa’uld so immaculately groomed. His strange accent was suave and conversational and Janet’s stomach rolled.

He flashed her a dashing grin. “Name’s Ba’al.”  
She tugged backwards. The Jaffa holding her arms felt like rock. This was the Goa’uld who tortured Jack, the same one who slowly and sadistically killed and revived him again and again and again. Janet’s fitful gaze scanned the room for any clue as to her fate.

She found that she saw things, strange apparatuses, tools and binds, but could not comprehend what they would be used for. She squirmed as Ba’al took distinguished steps towards her.

“Now, now, my dear.” He reached for her face and she heard herself whimper. Her breath clutched in her throat as his finger touched her cheek. He swept his nail tenderly across her brow to catch loose locks of her hair and tuck them around her ear as she quietly cried.

“I know you work with SG-1 at Stargate Command,” Ba’al said, delicately catching her tears on his fingertip and painting damp lines on her cheeks.   
Janet forced her gaze into his eyes despite how she trembled. “I won’t tell you anything.” Her voice failed into a tragic whisper.

“Oh!” Ba’al chirped in delight. His gaze left hers to examine the frazzled strands of hair on top of her head. He began carefully grooming her as he said, “Aren’t you precious. Shall we see?”  
Janet froze, utterly stiffened by fear. Ba’al hooked the edge of his finger under her chin and she gasped.  
“Shall we see how long you would last before you give up every secret of your world?”

She thought of her daughter. She wondered if she had even hugged Cassie in the morning. She wondered if she had told her she loved her. She tried to remember the last thing she said to the girl before sending her off to school.

She hoped she had given Sam a proper kiss before she left for work. She couldn’t remember. The soldier’s shift started so early in the morning. Janet usually lay in bed a while longer. Maybe Sam had kissed her goodbye. Maybe Janet had told her she loved her. Janet couldn’t remember.

Ba’al chortled and gathered her face wholly in his hands. “No. Don’t you worry. I won’t be torturing you today.”  
Janet just sobbed with relief and didn’t care that Ba’al dried her tears. She was so afraid. She could tell herself she would be strong for her daughter, strong for Sam, strong for Earth and the whole galaxy but the mere thought of going through what Jack had gone through scared her senseless.

She couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t reveal everything she knew. She couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t give Ba’al the means to destroy everything and everyone she loved. And she wouldn’t have any ascended beings helping her through it, least of all Daniel.

“I actually don’t have to torture you to find out everything you know.”  
Ba’al’s hands left her and she followed the movement of a third previously obscured Jaffa who carried a small bubbling tank in his hands.

Janet’s breath hitched and her eyes quaked at the sight of the writhing, squirming symbiote swimming inside. She struggled in earnest as Ba’al lifted his sleeve and plunged his hand inside the tank.

The symbiote screeched and flailed, sensing the body it was about to possess. Strong Jaffa hands wrenched into her hair, taking fistfuls each. Janet gasped, jaw quivering open as she was made to bend forward and the back of her neck was exposed.

She had only moments before she would lose all power over her own body. She had no idea what would happen to her, other than her conscious mind would be suppressed. There was no single action she would ever be able to make.

Thinking of her daughter Cassandra, and Sam, the woman she loved, she relished every feeling and sensation of forming three simple words on her lips.   
“I love you.”

 

* * *

 

“Look, are we going to start negotiations or not?” Cam had his hands on his hips. 

Daniel was catatonic. Cam couldn’t think of what would happen to Sam or Teal’c or even Vala if Nephthys were allowed to dictate the way their meeting progressed.

“We can reverse what he did, you know,” Vala said, “You know it can be done. I used to be host to Qetesh. Not anymore.”  
The Goa’uld’s lips spread into a rich smile. “Mmm. I know.”

Vala tensed as Nephthys prowled over to her. “But if it were so easy to remove me from this host none of you would look as hopeless as you do now. I know you’re aware of the treaty I have with the Asgard. I have done nothing to violate that contract and I don’t intend to. I’m still willing to negotiate a trade.”

“What could we give you to let us speak to Janet?”  
Nephthys turned. “Samantha Carter...” Her gaze was lascivious as she slowly approached, and Teal’c put himself protectively in her way. His ferocious eyes glared down at her and Nephthys smirked. She began to take small, deliberate steps around him, challenging him to physically halt her advance on Sam.

He would not tempt the treaty. Any action he took could be interpreted as a sign of aggression and when Nephthys retaliated, according to the treaty, she was defending herself.   
Sam visibly shuddered as Nephthys came to stand before her, and gazed up at her with Janet’s beautiful brown eyes.

“It would have to be...,” Nephthys let her gaze pour over Sam’s body like steaming water. Sam could almost feel it heating and drenching her skin. Nephthys looked her straight in the eyes, the corner of her lips curved into a devilish smile. “Interesting.”

“Okay,” Cam barked. “I think this meeting is over. We’re outa here. Come on, guys.”  
Nephthys’ mouth watered at the way Sam’s eyes quivered with resolve.

“Sam. Let’s go,” Cam called.  
“No.”  
“Sam.”  
“No. I can’t.”  
“Yes. You can. Let’s move.”

“I said, no!” Sam said, shrugging away from Teal’c’s hand on her shoulder.   
Nephthys never broke their gaze as she said, “I promise to have her home by nine...”  
Cam felt his insides tilt uneasily. It was too far beyond him to comprehend and he just winced defeatedly.

“Fine. Guys, let’s go.”  
Teal’c refused to leave Sam’s side and Cam had to order him to follow him out of the hall. When they were finally alone Nephthys hummed.

“Follow me.”

 

* * *

 

Cam radioed the Odyssey when they returned to the guests’ quarters. 

“Oh my god,” Davidson breathed, shocked at the news of Janet.  
“For the moment there may not be anything we can do about it,” Cam said, clutching the back of his neck regrettably. “If you could transfer the Asgard treaty to Sam’s tablet we can work to find a loophole.”

“Uploading now,” said Davidson. Cam held the tablet in his hands and watched as the data was received.   
“Got it.”  
“We’ll relay the news to the SGC. Hopefully we can find something on our end.”  
“Thanks. Appreciate it. Mitchell out.”

He sighed and went to find Daniel. He found Teal’c leaving the man’s room. He had never seen the Jaffa so disheartened. The strong forms of his face had been softly eroded by his grief.   
“How is he?” Cam asked, composing himself.   
“Not good. And I am concerned for Colonel Carter.”

Cam nodded. “What about you big guy? How you holding up?”  
He was aware of Vala creeping up to the corner of the corridor as Teal’c’s eyes squinted with a surge of emotion and said, “It pains me to think that a dear friend has been through such horrors. I can promise you this Cameron Mitchell, that Asgard treaty or no, there will be little stopping me from doing everything I can to make this right.”

He eased himself past Vala and left for his own room, probably to kelno’reem, Cam thought.   
“This isn’t good,” Vala said.   
“No. And I’m afraid things are only going to get worse.”  
“What do you mean?”

“I haven’t had a chance to tell everyone yet.”  
Vala pressed forward curiously, trying to get under his evasive gaze. “Tell us what? What’s going on?”  
Cam looked up at her and then at Daniel’s bedroom door. “Not now. I’ll wait until we’re all together. They all need time to process this.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam interrupts an orgy.

Sam followed Nephthys through the palace to a luxurious bedchamber. The heat and aroma struck her like plunging into the sea from a great height. The room was not empty. All around the lavishly furnished chamber Sam could see bodies writhing and grinding together.

Bodies rolled languidly across the enormous, extravagant bed. There were others, seated in armchairs, draped across sofas or laid out over rugs and cushions, and Sam watched them thrusting and stirring sexual mist into the atmosphere.

Sam stammered as nude men and women perked at the arrival of the Goa’uld, and those not presently engaged rose to their feet and converged on their Goddess. Sam’s breath travelled in a thin line in and out of her throat, watching the many hands paw at the woman she knew as Janet, and the way Nephthys purred at the attention.

Entranced by the display before her, Sam didn’t notice the others creeping up on her from behind until their arms wrapped around her. She yelped and tugged away, spinning around into a defensive stance.

Nephthys chuckled. “Now, boys,” Nephthys said. “She’s not for you. In fact, all of you. Finish up. I wish to be left alone.”

The sounds of grunting and moaning elevated. Sam didn’t move until the room was cleared. She didn’t take a breath as the naked bodies filed past her. When the door finally closed she turned to look up at Nephthys. The Goa’uld shrugged coyly.   
“Oops. Forgot I told them to carry on without me.”

Sam let all the air rush from her lungs in shock. Her mind raced with thoughts of Nephthys’ participation in such orgies. She couldn’t imagine how Janet felt. To feel her body used. Sam felt sick and shivered with rage.

The Goa’uld eyed her critically with slanted lips. “You disapprove of how I spend my time.”  
Sam wanted to tell her that it wasn’t how she spent her time she disapproved of. It was how Janet had no choice but to participate.

Nephthys noticed the way Sam looked her up and down, the way Sam’s fingers twitched the sides of her protective but hesitant stance. If Nephthys were her own, separate person, Sam was preparing to tackle her away from the woman she loved. But she couldn’t.

Nephthys smiled at her, hips and shoulders in an alluring sway as she slowly approached. “I have been looking forward to meeting you, Samantha Carter.”  
Sam stole a quick glance at the bedroom door and then shuddered realizing Nephthys had seen her do so. She hated that the Goa’uld would know how scared she was, that she would know, specifically, what frightened her.

But surely Nephthys wouldn’t be so brazen as to violate the Asgard treaty in such a way. Unless she had some sort of escape plan, and intended to take Sam with her.

Nephthys mercifully kept her distance and said, “My host loves you. With every ounce of her heart.”  
There was something in Nephthys’ voice that suddenly set her at ease. The textured tones came from somewhere personal.

“You would know, having once been blended with a Tok’ra, how completely the memories and emotions of the host and symbiote blend between two consciousness. My Goa’uld contemporaries prefer to block out the mind of their host near completely. It becomes no more than faint and distant impression at the outer edges of the mind. Like having a feeling that you left the iron on.”

Nephthys’ grasp of Tau’ri analogy, perhaps due to Janet’s influence, made Sam smile briefly, if only out of nervous tension.

“This host interested me. Her life. What she had been through. Ba’al couldn’t have known the varied parallels between my life and hers. I felt an instant affinity and respect for her.”

Sam tried to think of what Nephthys meant by parallels between her life and Janet’s. But the way Nephthys spoke gave her an urgent sense of hope that she would permit her time to speak to Janet. She could think of nothing else.

“You couldn’t have known at the time but you have already done something for me for which I am most grateful and take the deepest satisfaction. You killed Setesh.” Nephthys’ voice had quivered a little, but she seemed unconcerned that she had shown Sam vulnerability. “I’m not sure what you were willing to offer me, and as much as I would have liked to kill the bastard myself, for that alone I am going let you speak to Janet Fraiser.”

Sam felt her heart thunder to life. “For how long?” she asked shifting anxiously on the balls of her feet.   
Nephthys quirked her head. “A minute. Maybe more. Maybe less.”  
Sam tensed her jaw to mute her fury, and tears stung in her eyes.   
“I suggest you make the most of it,” Nephthys said.

Sam had never more carefully watched for anything in her life. Nephthys lowered her gaze in the same way the Tok’ra relinquished dominance over their hosts, and a second later, the woman shivered, as though caressed by a gust of cold wind. Sam watched her tentatively move her arms, her hands. Her lips parted in shock then her eyes met Sam’s.

“...Janet?”   
“Sam,” Janet whispered, as though it were the first time she had ever tried to use her voice. She reached for her and tried to take a step. Sam saw her body begin to crumple and was there quickly to catch her.

Janet held on blindly. “Sam?”  
Sam carefully hooked her arms under Janet’s shoulders. She waited patiently for her to adapt to needing to support herself. “I’m here. I’m here. I’ve got you.”  
Janet clamoured for more hold, feet slipping on the floor. Sam dipped her knees to get more purchase on her small, trembling body and lifted her up again, hugging her firmly.

Gradually Sam felt a sureness in Janet’s posture and she let the woman ease from her embrace. It was Sam who fell apart when Janet’s eyes met hers again.  
“Janet. I’m...!”

Janet simply took Sam’s face in her hands, feeling into her hair as though she would never get the chance again, and Sam closed her eyes, sobbing, tilting into her touch.

Janet smiled, overwhelmed at the woman before her, that she could see her and touch her. Running fingers through soft, shaggy locks, caressing warm cheeks, she never imagined anything could feel so good.

“It’s not your fault. There’s no one to blame. Okay?” She swept her hands firmly around Sam’s face, brushing her hair and curling her fingers around her ears as Sam caught her hands in hers, holding them there. “Please tell Daniel it was not his fault. Tell him to stop blaming himself. Promise me. Sam?”   
Sam’s breath quivered on her trembling lip. “I promise.”

Janet’s lip trembled with emotion. “I thought I’d never see you again. I thought I’d never hold you again.” She tenderly explored Sam’s features. “You’re so beautiful.”

Sam just brushed her fingers against Janet’s wrists. “I love you so much.”  
“I love you too. Always. No matter what.”  
Sam shook her head, creasing her brow hopelessly. “I don’t know how to help you. I don’t...”

“Shhh. It’s okay. It’s alright.” Janet traced her fingers under Sam’s eyes, catching every silvery tear. “You do what you have to do, okay? I don’t want you putting yourself or Earth at risk just for me.”  
Sam sobbed. She wouldn’t leave her again. She couldn’t hear Janet tell her to leave her.   
“Janet...”

“How’s Cassie?”  
Sam blinked and stuttered. “Sh-She’s fine, she’s...she’s at College.”  
Pride bloomed on Janet’s face, and a tear fell beautifully from her eye. “I wish I could have been there for her first day.”

Sam whined mournfully and reached out her hands. Sam could hear the breath flush from Janet’s lungs at the touch of familiar fingers to her cheeks. The woman whimpered and Sam weaved all her love into every caress. Janet nuzzled her head into Sam’s touch, wanting to feel more.

Sam set resolve into her voice. “I’m going to get you back. I promise you. I’m going to...”  
Janet suddenly perched herself up on her toes and pressed her lips to Sam’s. Momentarily stunned, Sam whimpered and wound her arms around Janet’s back, pulling her in tight.

It was real. She was holding Janet. She was kissing her. Janet’s hands were in her hair, and her lips were soft and feverish, urgent. She wanted more and Sam surrendered herself, unafraid that she would wake up and discover it was only a dream.

She had never dreamt like this. Those few heartbreaking nights Janet had come to her, Sam always knew, always felt swirling inside her that it wasn’t really her, it wasn’t really happening.

But now, there was no doubt Janet was taking her breath away. No doubt of the strength failing in Sam’s knees or the festival in her heart.

Janet broke the kiss gently and Sam licked and savoured her taste off her own lips. Janet released a sigh and smiled, eyes twinkling as she picked at a stray lock of Sam’s hair. “Didn’t know how much time we’d have, so...”

Sam cupped her face and arched forward, feeling Janet hum with pleasure. But she suddenly ached. This would end. Their time was running out and she couldn’t know how long she had left. Sam sobbed against Janet’s lips.

“Shhh. Sam. It’s okay.”  
“I don’t want you to go. I can’t...” With a trembling hand Sam brushed shimmering auburn locks behind her lover’s ear. “I can’t let you go, I can’t.” Her strained voice drifted higher in helplessness.   
“Shhh....honey. You know where I am. Okay?” Janet held the back of her neck and rubbed her jaw with her thumb. “You found me. And you’ll find me again. I know that.”

There was an unsteady quiver in her words despite her firm assertion, but Sam knew it had nothing to do with the strength of her belief. Janet was scared. Sam could feel it in the beating of her heart, see it in the gleaming of her eyes.

Hot tears glistened on Sam’s cheeks. “I will. I promise you. I love you. I love you so much.”  
Janet breathed in, and her lips parted on the verge of returning her declaration, but she froze. The smug smirk her lips formed instead drew a growl of anguish from Sam as she pulled away.

“You can tell the rest of SG-1 that I am still willing to hold negotiations for trade,” Nephthys said, readjusting her attire and grooming her hair. Sam fumed, biting down screams, and aggressively nudged the cuff of her sleeve across her tears.

“I’ll have my Priests come for you when I am ready.”

 

* * *

 

Three anxious faces turned up at Sam as she entered the room. The door closed behind her but she couldn’t move until she focussed on the shining tiled floor. Her eyes still stung, her step was still unsure, and she couldn’t stop seeing the look in Janet’s eyes the moment before Nephthys took her over again.

She’d never seen anything more horrifying. When a Tok’ra assumed dominance over their host, the host’s eyes closed and their heads bowed. It was the same when the Tok’ra relinquished control. Sam had never thought much about it, perhaps taking the behaviour for granted.

There had been a few instances Sam had seen the Goa’uld lose power of their host. But she had never seen it happen up close. She had never seen them reclaim their host while she was still gazing into their eyes.

There was an instance Janet had sensed what was about to happen, but too late to do anything about it, too late to even say goodbye. Sam had seen stark terror in her lover’s eyes. She had literally seen the woman torn out of them, sucked away into darkness, like a body ejected from an airlock into space.

Before she realized it Sam was standing in front of her friends, and Cam was putting his hand gently on her shoulder.   
“Hey. Sam. You alright? Did she...do something to you?” He and Teal’c peered her over in concern but she lifted her hand.

“I’m fine.” She had to look each of them firmly in the eye before they conceded, and Teal’c took a little longer to convince.   
“What happened?” Vala asked.   
“She let me talk to Janet,” Sam breathed out briskly.

Vala dipped her head to the side and back. “Huh. Well, I wasn’t expecting that.”  
“Nephthys only let me speak to her because I killed Setesh.”  
“Oh. That’d do it.”

Sam scanned the room. “Where’s Daniel?”  
“He went to his room. Haven’t seen nor heard a peep from him since,” Vala told her.   
Sam excused herself from the trio and navigated the corridors to the room Daniel had selected. She knocked first but received no answer when she called his name.

Announcing her intent to come in, Sam nudged open the door and found Daniel huddled on the bed, facing the wall.

Sam pulled the string of the strange lamp bolted to the wall, and a pleasant warm glow lit the room. She drew the door closed behind her as she stood on the threshold.   
“Daniel.”

His form was still and silent on the bed.   
“Daniel, I...I spoke to Janet.” She bit her lip shamefully when the man continued to ignore her. “Daniel, please, are you awake?”  
“How can you be sure it was her?” Daniel words slurred with misery.   
Sam sighed as the tension released around her chest.

She sat down on the edge of his bed in the space left by the nook of his bent legs and gathered her fingers together on her lap. “I was never more sure of anything in my life. It was her.”

Daniel squinted at the wall. It was all she had to say. He was privileged to know exactly what she meant, and the extent of how Sam was feeling.

When he had found Sha’re on Abydos, alive and unpossessed and with child, it was more than he could stand. To see her, to speak with her and hold her, to feel her touching him and, what flawed him most, to feel her loving him, there were words he would never be able to find to describe those moments.

To see her taken again. He felt his soul sinking and burning. It was a pain he couldn’t escape.

He was only lucky he had friends like Jack and Teal’c. Friends like Sam. Sam, who patiently nurtured hope into his heart again, cultivating it, nursing it. Without Sam, he’d never have had the hope to fight on.

“I know...I’ve been cold towards you,” Sam said, her voice raw. “I always insisted that I didn’t blame you for what happened. But I know you could tell that I did.”

His heart clenched and his eyes shut.

“I wasn’t there, Daniel. Airmen Bosworth told me that he was the one providing cover. He told me the Jaffa came out of the tree line too fast. They spotted you immediately. Bosworth said that even as he pulled the trigger, one of them got off a shot before he could neutralize him. One shot. That’s all it took.”

He never imagined what it would feel like, how the wounds inside him would feel slowly mending. His heart quivered.

“Later on Wells came to me. He told me he was the one who asked you to get a message to his wife. He didn’t know you had a camera with you. But he told me...at the time...he had been so grateful. To be able to tell her himself. He said he was lying there thinking he was going to die, to never have the chance to tell her he loved her ever again. And you were giving him that chance. It meant everything to him.”

Daniel had tried to hold on to remnants of his relationship with Sam. He held onto it like a tattered silk scarf, a tragic piece of something once splendid and exuberant and beautiful and cherished.

But it had fallen apart in his hands, blowing away as dust on the wind.

“If...If Janet weren’t so darn good at her job...it might have been the only chance he had.”

Daniel wondered if he’d ever remembered what it was like to be so close with Sam. He wondered if something so incredible and deep and profound could ever be committed to something as frail as memory. Because he had certainly never remembered it feeling anything like this.

“Daniel. I blamed you for what happened because I couldn’t blame myself. I wasn’t there. And that...that was killing me...it was killing me every day.”

Daniel took in a breath as silently and as steadily as he could and bit down hard on the sobs shuddering in his throat.

“Blaming you made it hurt less. It distracted me. Because when you weren’t around, and all I had was myself and the pain? Every breath...hurt. You didn’t deserve that from me Daniel. And I’m sorry that I wasn’t there for you. You’ve been suffering just as much as I have and I...I’m the biggest jerk in the universe for treating you like that for all this time.”

These were things he knew, and had known for a long time. He had accepted, too, that she might never admit it to him.

“I know it can’t make up for any of it but I want you to know...I’m sorry. You’re one of the most important people in my life, Daniel, and...I feel you were the one I lost three years ago. And that was my own fault.”

He could hear the tears in her voice, feel the gentle shake of the bed as she plucked nervously at her fingers.

“You didn’t abandon Janet, Daniel. I abandoned you. I was the one who let you down.”

After a pause, the next time she spoke her voice broke shamefully.

“And I’m sorry.”

Sam stared across the room where the floor met the wall, counting the seconds of silence.

She held her breath when she felt the bed move under Daniel’s weight. She bobbed on the spring of the mattress as he moved behind her and then carefully swung his feet to the floor. Sam gasped in a little more when he shuffled closer.

Feeling his hand brush across her back, she leaned into his exonerating embrace and let him bundle her in both his arms.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack O'Neill breaks Walter's coffee mug.

Cam exhaled in relief seeing Sam and Daniel emerge together into the central chamber. He wasn’t going to question what happened between them. All he needed to know was that he now had a full team ready to tackle the little problem they left back home of an imminent intergalactic attack.

He addressed his team and told them about his conversation with Shu.

“When do we meet these rebels?” Teal’c asked, anticipation bulging in his arms.   
“The guy hasn’t got back to me yet.”  
Daniel’s eyes twitched anxiously. “Well, whatever happens, we can’t let them kill Nephthys.”  
“I know. And I explained all about the Goa’uld...more or less. We might be able to convince them that we need Nephthys alive so we can save Janet.”

Vala stretched and rolled her shoulders, setting her hands on her hips. “You might be able to make a few people understand but you have to remember that she isn’t going to be their priority. They want to rid themselves of Nephthys. Even if she has only ruled over them for a few years, they have known hundreds as free people. Who knows what Nephthys has been up to since she got here. A few mass murders, an all out massacre, slave labour, public executions. She has a whole planet here and only one city full of worshipers. What does that tell you?”

Sam frowned at her. She knew, deep down, that saving Janet would be next to impossible but she didn’t need Vala to spell it out.  
“If you think it was hard,” Teal’c began solemnly, “convincing people that the Goa’uld were false Gods, it will be even harder to convince them to spare Nephthys for the sake of one woman they do not know.”

“Maybe Landry’s been able to come up with something on his end,” said Cam. “I told him to talk to the Asgard and explain our situation.”

Daniel folded his arms tightly across his chest as though overcome by a sudden cold. “I’m not sure how sympathetic the Asgard are likely to be.”

The looks he received demanded an explanation. Daniel tried his best to put it into the simplest terms. “They understand that Nephthys only has the capacity to broker a treaty when she takes a host. They’ve agreed not to interfere with her operations so long as she takes no action against anyone trespassing in this solar system and in turn the Asgard provide the necessary protection. Compromising her host, i.e, forcibly removing her from Janet would fall under interference.”

Cam blinked and looked overwhelmed. “But Janet wasn’t her host when she made this deal.”  
“And Nephthys didn’t technically take Janet as a host. Ba’al forced the blending to take place. The details of the treaty are frustratingly specific. Nephthys is pretty much allowed to do whatever she wants outside Sekhem. On Sekhem she’s protected. And any action we take to remove her, bring her beyond those perimeters, will incur penalty from the Asgard against us.”

Sam gripped the back of the sofa to subdue a bout of rage. The white of her knuckles made Daniel tense and swallow.

Cam was shaking his head and squinting incredulously. “How could the Asgard have agreed to such a treaty with a Goa’uld?”  
Distracted by Sam’s obvious pain, Daniel took a while to realize he was supposed to answer. He cleared his throat and said, “This deal was made close to a thousand years ago. We know that back then the Asgard had a considerable advantage over the Goa’uld and underestimated the threat they would later prove to be.”

“There has to be a loophole somewhere,” Cam insisted, earning an appreciative look from Sam.   
“Believe me, I’m trying to find it,” said Daniel.  
“Nephthys is sly,” said Vala, “It’s a fairly safe bet she’s considered every angle, every possible contingency.”

Teal’c puffed out his chest and sneered with conviction. “All Goa’uld have one sure weakness.”  
Vala looked up at him doubtfully. “I wouldn’t be so certain of that. With Anubis and almost all the System Lords out of the picture, if Nephthys were half as arrogant as most Goa’uld she would be seizing the opportunity for galactic dominance.”

“Unless she has no idea,” Sam pointed out.  
Daniel cocked his head. “She’s been in play for three years and we’ve never heard a single word of her until now. It’s possible she has confined herself to the planet the entire time.”  
“Then she won’t know Anubis has been eliminated and that the only System Lord left is Ba’al,” said Cam.

Sam reached for this small sliver of hope and grabbed hold. “Surely we can find some way to use that to our advantage.”  
Vala only snatched it from her grasp. “Say we tell her. Say we let her know the galaxy is ripe for the taking, we’re still unsure as to the extent of her power. She claimed to have a whole planet full of alien technology gathered from all kinds of alien races and civilizations. So far we’ve seen only a single city in the middle of a lot of sand. She has no interest in galactic domination.”

Sam tightly clenched her jaw. She didn’t understand why Vala was being so pessimistic. Typically she was the one propositioning them for all kinds of dangerous if not suicidal missions, hunting for long lost legendary treasures and other things she thought were valuable and might look good on a shelf in her new room at the SGC.

This was the one time she needed the retired con artist to be that reckless and infallible. She needed Vala to tell her it was possible to save Janet. Vala had been a Goa’uld once. And Sam didn’t want to think of her as being the kind of woman who was grateful it was someone else trapped in her own body and not herself.

Still, it wasn’t like Vala was telling them they were better off leaving while they had the chance. And Vala had been the one to tell Sam that she had hope. There had to be something else going on.

“Perhaps these rebels will have a better idea of what Nephthys has at her disposal,” Teal’c’s voice severed her train of thought.

“In the mean time,” Cam said, “Daniel, you can keep looking through that treaty. Sam can help you. But I don’t want the two of you exhausting yourselves to the point you become a liability out here. Remember our mission objective is to find ZPMs or any other means to power our defences against the Ombosian attack on Earth. We have to stay focussed.”

It was the nicest way he could put it, and he hoped that Sam and Daniel appreciated that he wasn’t telling them not to try. Janet was a soldier they had left behind. Without even knowing her, Cam felt as if there was a piece of himself trapped somewhere.

“We know,” Daniel said, tapping the back of the sofa and leaning in the direction of his room. He looked up at Sam who met his gaze only briefly before watching her own nails pick at the sofa cushion. “We know Janet wouldn’t want us putting Earth at risk for her.”

When Daniel left Sam went after him, passing beneath Teal’c’s troubled stare. When she was gone he turned to Cam.   
“I am sorry that we have not been properly focussed on our mission, Colonel Mitchell,” he said, in a self rebuking bow.

Cam rolled his head. “Aw hell, Teal’c.” He grimaced at the floor. “You know, personally, rescuing Janet Fraiser doesn’t need to be our mission for me to do everything I can to get that damn snake out of her.”

Their leader took a step forward, turned and sank onto the sofa with his head in his hands. Rubbing his brow he shrugged hopelessly. “I am...hoping like hell that Sam and Daniel can find,” and he held out his hands tensely, as if the solution would appear between them by his sheer will, “...something in that treaty.”

Teal’c smiled, and to himself said, “I have the utmost confidence in their ability.”

 

* * *

 

The SGC was noticeably quiet and that one shade greyer, that one degree colder without a member of SG-1 around. It was generally accepted that they were the heart and soul of the Cheyenne Mountain complex, and the entire base waited like a pet dog at the front window, for their return.

Maybe Hank noticed the silence more now because he was trying to find the right words. He noticed the grey of the walls, the dull tones of his wilted surroundings because no one at the SGC had been able to find a way out of this.

He set down the mug of coffee from which he had been sipping for the past hour and it too had gone cold. They were stuck. There was nothing any of them could do. And he knew, as hard as they might be trying, that Dr Jackson and Colonel Carter and the other members of SG-1 would fail.

He knew it as surely as a man could know something. The Asgard were their most trusted allies. More than the Tok’ra, and more than the free Jaffa. And not one of them had come forward with a compromise to their problem.

The worst part of it was, that there was still one more person Hank needed to tell. Walter appeared at the open office door.  
“General Jack O’Neill is here, Sir.” The technician stood in the doorway with sombre, hanging shoulders.

Hands woven together before his face, Hank lifted a finger. “Send him in.”  
“Yes, Sir.” Walter turned, and then stepped aside in the corridor as Jack edged past him.   
The man was aging defiantly, fully embracing the changes to his hair and skin and posture and weight with unflinching arrogance, as though he were telling the universe to try harder.

“Well I’m here.” Jack rolled back on his heels and up onto his toes. “In person. If you tell me I might wanna sit down, I will hit you.”  
Hank stood up from his desk.

“Oh and if you tell me Daniel’s dead, I’m walking out that door,” Jack said, tossing a thumb over his shoulder.

Hank fixed his features, trying at once to show confidence and sensitivity. This had to come out right.   
“You read the brief I sent you?”  
Jack grimaced. “There were just...so many words. A picture or two couldn't hurt.”  
The only thing left to do was explain the situation. Taking a moment to collect his nerve, Hank set his hands on the desk.

“SG-1 are currently on mission on a planet called Sekhem hoping to acquire ZPMs or other technology to help Earth’s defences when Seth’s forces launch their attack.”  
Jack cocked head. “Yeah, didn’t we kill Seth?”

“He had planets populated with people still loyal to him. They still believe he is their god and that he will one day return to them. Problem is they held a little ceremony while SG-1 were exploring their planet. SG-1 stopped a ritual sacrifice and escaped. The people are demanding we hand over our team or they will attack Earth.”

Jack thinned his lips. “Mm...hm.”  
“While on Seth’s planet Daniel Jackson discovered a gate address the Goa’uld had told his followers was forbidden, sacrilege. A kind of...hell. P3X-666.”

Hank closely watched the light drain from Jack’s eyes. “I’m sure you recognize the address. Naturally, Dr Jackson had to follow it up. Turns out that was where Setesh was keeping a rather reluctant lover of his, a Goa’uld called Nephthys, trapped in stasis in a canopic jar. Ba’al was there the day you and SG-13 were attacked on that planet. He was searching for Nephthys.”

“I assume he found her then.” The usual bravado was absent from Jack’s voice.  
Hank gave an affirmative nod. “He did. And he brought her back, gave her a new host.”

Jack took one hand out of his pocket to idly finger the edge of the coffee mug on Hank’s desk. Hank could see it in the darkened crescents of his fellow General’s eyes that he would be telling him what he had already come to conclude. But the man still needed to hear it.   
“Jack...I so deeply regret to tell you...Her host is Dr Janet Fraiser.”

Hank didn’t move an inch or say another word. The bottom lids of Jack’s eyes lifted a little as he stared down at the mug, running one finger around the rim, tapping the top of the handle with a nail. The soft chink, chink, chink was the only noise in the room until Jack froze altogether and there was no sound at all.

Suddenly Jack was a force of motion, scooping the mug into his fist, and swinging his entire body in a ferocious arc, smashing the mug and its contents against the back wall of the office. The cup exploded into a thousand shards and a spray of brown liquid stained the wall, dribbling in long, wet lines.

Two Airmen hurried into the room, guns raised.   
“Stand down! Stand down,” Hank ordered quickly, holding out his hand. He looked back at Jack, concerned.  
“Hope that wasn’t one of those sentimental father’s day gifts or anything,” Jack said squinting one eye and scrunching his nose.   
Hank shook his head. “I think it was Walter’s.”

“Ah.” Jack shoved his hands in his pockets again and nodded at the ground. “I guess I’ll buy him a new one.”  
Hank smiled sadly. He hadn’t even told Jack the worst part.   
“Jack,” he said, to gently get his attention.  
Jack was frowning, but looked up brightly. “Yep.”  
“There’s more...”

 

* * *

 

Daniel rubbed his eyes behind his glasses. He had been reading and rereading the Asgard treaty so many times that he was fairly sure he had just spent the last ten minutes looking at the reflection of the tablet light in his lenses.

“You should get some sleep.” Sam leaned in the doorway to his room, head resting tiredly on her arm.   
Daniel removed his glasses and rubbed his whole face to refresh his focus. “What about you?”  
Sam let her other arm swing at her side. She lifted her hand and picked her thumbnail with the nail of her forefinger. “...I can’t sleep.”

“You haven’t tried.” He smiled at her. When she stepped into the room, Sam hugged herself.   
“...I close my eyes, even a second and...”  
“Yeah,” said Daniel. In that darkness he saw horrible things. He saw Ba’al come across Janet’s lifeless body. Saw the order he gave to a loyal Jaffa who picked her up and swung her over his shoulder like she was never a person with a smile and a laugh and a kind and gentle heart.

She was just an empty piece of flesh waiting to be filled. The horror didn’t end with the blending of the Goa’uld symbiote. Daniel could not stop imagining what she might have endured under Nephthys’s control during her time on Ba’al’s ship. He could not stop himself constructing every nightmare she could have suffered at the hands of Anubis.

Nephthys may have once had control over him, the power to manipulate him, but Daniel was sure that even she never expected him to actually Ascend. That being, although trapped between states of existence, still had access to vast, incomprehensible knowledge and power, and in a mind already fractured and twisted beyond what was natural, Daniel feared Anubis may have in some way lashed out at the woman who put him there.

Nephthys clearly used Anubis as her own pet dog, sending him out across the galaxy collecting Ancient technology, appealing to his ego to test any unfamiliar device on himself. His suffering and determination would have been earnest, and Daniel had to believe it was the only reason Oma could have taken such pity on him.

Once Anubis learned the truth, the extent to which he had been used, and by a lowly Goa’uld without rank, his rage would have known no bounds.

It was a wonder to Daniel that Nephthys managed to escape his fleet at all. He could only guess that Ba’al may have proven himself to be as easy to manipulate as Anubis had once been, and Nephthys used him to orchestrate her retreat to Sekhem.

It was all too much to think about what Janet had been through, the things she had seen, the acts she was powerless to prevent. He thought back to the time his body had been possessed by the souls of a doomed ship.

He remembered a feeling of being something very, very small inside something so large and dark, shouting and shouting and receiving no answer.

When he described it to Sam she told him that her experience with Jolinar was nothing like that. She could still feel her body moving, she could still see through her own eyes. It were as if some layer of living tissue had been painted over her skin that constricted tightly over every inch of her body, and moved it for her. She couldn’t even decide when to breathe.

He had never asked Vala what her experience with Qetesh had been like. All she talked about was the torture she endured after the symbiote had been removed from her head. He knew she would always feel bitterness and resentment towards other people because of it.

Her anger that they could not tell the difference between the desperate cries of a human woman and the frightening soullessness of a murderous, sadistic parasite had been left to permeate her already ravaged sense of identity.

It was hard to know who Vala really was. Daniel had to admit he had not exactly shown her patience in that regard, and her tendency to wear various facades like outfits was a direct response to his continued indifference.

This Vala, the Vala he knew now, the reckless and juvenile narcissist, was hard enough to handle. It was daunting to think there were sides to her that waited beneath that turbulent surface.

“Well, we’re no good like this,” said Sam. “We need to be completely focussed or we’ll miss important things.”  
Daniel heaved a heavy sigh. “You’re probably right. I just...If I stopped now I’d feel like I was...”  
“Yeah. Me too.”

He hesitated to ask, but he didn’t expect much of an answer. “...How was she?”  
Sam smiled sadly and Daniel felt a stab in his heart at the tear that she tried to catch before he saw, so he looked down as if he hadn’t noticed.   
“Good. She was...she was okay. I, um...I should...get back to my room.”

Daniel nodded, eyes on the tablet screen. He heard her leaving the room. “Sam.” He looked up to see her turning at the doorway. She held the frame, waiting anxiously. “I’ve missed you.”

She faltered, and he mercifully turned away gesturing to the room, and their work, wordlessly telling her that they hadn’t worked together as friends in a long time.   
Sam just sniffed, and had to hold her lips together for a moment. “I’ve missed you, too.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack makes another friend in the Asgard and Vala eats more cakes.

Jack had been sitting alone in an empty room for so long he had forgotten what it was he had gone in looking for. He’d even forgotten why he hadn’t just left when he couldn’t find it. He was just thinking how strange it was when a pair of heels echoed from the outside corridor and drifted up behind him.

“Oh,” came the woman’s distinct exclamation, “Colonel. I was looking for Sam.”  
Jack didn’t bother turning around. “She’ll be around somewhere. Could be helping Dr Lee with something. You know how easily she gets distracted.” He lifted one hand off his knee and pretended to dangle something from his fingers. “Show her a shiny new piece of alien technology and she’s like a kitten with twine.”

Janet’s laughter was a beautiful sound, though she wouldn’t know it. Someone needed to tell her. “Okay,” she said. He heard her turning to leave, but her footsteps did not continue outside the room. “Are you alright, Sir?”

“Me? Oh. I’m fine.”  
“You know you’re sitting in the dark.”  
“Am I? Huh.” He wondered how he had found a dark and empty room so inviting.

The sound of Janet’s heels came nearer, and Jack felt her presence just behind him. “Something on your mind, Colonel?”

There was a strength and patience in her voice that provided Jack safe place for his thoughts. He more often than not gave the doctor a hard time, firstly for being so darn short, and secondly for actually having the authority to shove uncomfortable things up his ass.

But during her first crisis at the SGC, which may have been only her first or second day on the job, Jack didn’t know and he’d never asked, she had been the only one he could connect to, the only one he could trust as he lost more and more of his mind to the virus that reversed human genetic evolution.

But she also had to have faith in him, to have faith that he could handle the treatment that might have easily killed him or left him catatonic.

In those frightening hours, Janet was his only connection to the world. And she saved him. If not for her, the entire Stargate Program would have had a very short run, and things could have been a hell of a lot worse.

“On my mind? One of two things, usually.”  
Janet snorted. She edged a little more around him so that she could see his face. “You’re thinking about Merrin, aren’t you? The little girl from Orban.”  
Jack smiled and opened his hands into a pitiful basin on his lap. He didn’t know what he was waiting to catch, but he was sure it would pour through the gaps in his fingers anyway.

“I’m sorry about what happened,” Janet said gently.  
“Yeah.”

Janet sighed and was silent while she regarded the broken man. Then she spoke. “After hearing what happened I couldn’t stop thinking about it happening to Cassandra.”  
Jack thought instantly of the little girl, the sole survivor of a Goa’uld’s evil experiments, growing so fast but still so bright and full of spirit. She had seemed so lifeless when they found her, but now she shined.

He remembered gazing into Merrin’s vacant eyes, purged of desperately precious things. His heart almost stopped when he thought the next time he saw Cassie, she could have eyes like that. He went cold.

“I got up in the night and I watched her sleep. When I tried to drag myself back to bed I only got as far as the floor outside her door. I sat there all night. Awake.”

He loved that little girl. Sure, Janet was her mother and Sam was her hero, but he loved how he could make her laugh, loved how she was the only one who listened to him when he talked about football and hockey and fishing, and he wasn’t sad at all thinking that he should have been teaching those things to his son. Not at all.

“You did a good thing, Colonel. An incredible thing. What you gave to those people, to those children...” She paused and Jack looked up to see her searching for words that would fully express the magnitude of her feelings. She needn’t have bothered. He was already touched, and he didn’t think his heart could take much more.

“I would go as far as to say that it’s the single greatest gift anyone could ever give.”  
Jack nearly fell apart. No one had ever seen him fall into a sobbing mess and no one was ever going to. He raked his nerves together and held himself fast.  
“But I wasn’t the one who had to sacrifice myself to give it,” he said.

“No. You’re right,” Janet bowed her head solemnly.  
Jack could feel the salt stinging his eyes, hear the tick in his voice as he said, “I feel...I feel like...if I hadn’t tried so hard to show her what it could be like to just...be a kid...she never would have forfeited her life just to share those experiences with the people of her world.”

Janet smiled tenderly. “She would have undergone the averium regardless.”  
“But there was another way,” he insisted. “If we could have shown enough Orban leaders. Enough adults...”  
Janet shook her head, her voice firm and logical. “Merrin knew it was the only way. And she did it because she believed in what you had shown her. You’re an amazing person Jack. I’m sure you were an amazing father.”

Jack’s gaze sank miserably to his empty hands. “...I had the chance to be.”  
“I see how you are with Cassie. The things you’ve shown her, the things you’ve taught her. Maybe Sam and I worry too much about her education, whether or not she’s doing well at school, if she’s getting good grades.”

Jack sat silently, listening.

“A young girl needs a childhood. And Cassie’s didn’t start out so well. Jack. Whether you can see it or not, you’re really the closest thing she has to a father. There’s always time to learn about math and science and history. You only get one chance at childhood. You only get one chance to be a kid. The way you’ve played with her, all the catch, and tag and football, all the water balloon and water pistol fights, the fishing, the trips to the zoo to see animals other children take for granted and she finds so magical, the candy and carnival rides that make her sick and beg to go again anyway, what you’ve given her...I’ll never be able to thank you enough for it, Jack.”

“Doc?”  
“Yes Colonel?”  
“...Are you calling me immature?”

Janet laughed, that adorable sound again making Jack smile, and she sniffed. It was then Jack finally looked up at her and saw the tears on her cheeks.

Her hands reached for him and Jack felt her small, delicate fingers cup his face and tilt back his head. Her soft lips touched his forehead and he closed his eyes.

As she slipped away, she let her hand squeeze his shoulder. He caught it in his own, holding her there, making her stay just a little while longer. She stayed until he let go and he heard her heels leaving the room.

There was a sudden click and the room filled with light. Then the sound of the doctor’s footsteps faded down the corridor. What Janet had given him he would never be able to thank her for. His heart had not been so full in years. He didn’t think it could ever hold anything ever again, but Janet proved him wrong.

When Jack heard footsteps approach behind him, he could almost see the tiny doctor standing in the doorway.  
“I came to let you know the Asgard have agreed to meet with you.”  
Jack’s hopeful picture was shattered by Hank’s voice. It wasn’t the old General’s fault. Besides, Jack couldn’t waste his time reminiscing. He needed to start doing something to actually help.

“You’ll be able to state our case before the council,” Hank went on.  
Jack scoffed. “You mean beg.” He swung around, hands in pockets, and met Hank’s sympathetic smile.  
“Do you know what you’re going to say?” Hank asked.

“Have you ever known me to prepare for anything?”  
Hank almost laughed but it never passed his lips. “Look, Jack. Worst case scenario, Janet Fraiser remains as host for Nephthys, but under Asgard protection. It will at least give us time to come up with other solutions.”

Jack looked down and scuffed the heel of his shoe into the ground. “You mean until we’re prepared to make enemies of the Asgard. Somehow, I don’t see us being in that position any time soon.”  
“We’re not going to give up, Jack.”

Jack sighed and scratched the back of his head. “I know, Hank. So when is this meeting supposed to...” His surroundings were fading as though they disappeared behind a veil of water. Everything went dark. Gradually there was light, dull and blue, and great columns rising up all around him.

He was in the familiar chamber of the Asgard council. “..take place.” Seated high above him was an Asgard. His beetle black eyes glinted back at him.  
“My name is Hlin.”  
Jack screwed his nose. “Thor not around?”  
Hlin had a soft and soothing voice, but Jack didn’t recognize it, and that made him nervous.

“I understand you wish to contend a treaty made between us and a Goa’uld named Nephthys.”  
Jack rocked on his feet. “It’s not so much the treaty as the woman Nephthys has taken as her host.”

“We are aware of the unfortunate circumstances surrounding one Dr Janet Fraiser,” Hlin said, unfurling long knobby fingers as though presenting the situation on his narrow palm. “Unfortunately the terms of the treaty never denied Nephthys the freedom to explore the galaxy outside of Asgard protected space. The host she acquired was taken outside those perimeters. We must honour our agreement with her.”

“A few years back a race called the Tollan held a trial to determine who had the right to the body, the mind of the host or the Goa’uld symbiote.”  
Hlin folded his arms across his lectern and steepled two fingers together. “I am aware.”  
Jack wondered if the Asgard would honour precedents set in law by another advanced race in the galaxy. “They ruled in favour of the host.”

Hlin nodded and slowly blinked his eyes. “I understand what you are saying, General Jack O’Neill. But even if Janet Fraiser were able to speak for herself and were able to request such a trial, we would still be forced to honour our treaty with Nephthys. So long as she remains on Sekhem, we must protect her, and to do so, we must prevent any attempt to compromise her host.”

Jack felt as though blisters formed and popped over his skin. “Come on, Hlin. Throw me a bone here. We’re supposed to be allies. I thought we were friends. Give me something.”

It looked almost like the little mouth on the creature’s large head curved into a small smile. “You do me a great honour calling me a friend when we have never before now met, Jack O’Neill, but I am truly sorry. Janet Fraiser is a victim of our short sightedness more than she is that of the Goa’uld, and yet there is nothing even we can do.”

Jack could only sigh in disappointment. “Can’t you just...look the other way?”  
Hlin was silent for a moment and Jack’s heart beat a little faster. The alien turned his head and looked into the shadowed corners of the chamber. “We will forever regret underestimating the Goa’uld all those years ago. It has always been our one and only regret as a race. And so it always will be.” Hlin lowered his gaze to Jack. “Were we to go back on our word now, how could anyone in the galaxy have confidence in our word again?”

Integrity was a noble virtue and one Jack had always respected. He’d tried to live his life with as much of it as possible. But this time, he just didn’t care.

“You have achieved many things we once believed were impossible, General Jack O’Neill,” said Hlin, “You may lack our superior technology and intellect, but your ability far exceeds that of any race we have ever encountered. It is that quality that is shaping our galaxy, and will take you across the universe. The Asgard are honoured to call the Humans of Earth our friends. We can only hope you will forgive us for our failure to see the Goa’uld for the threat they became.”

Jack rolled his eyes and moaned begrudgingly. “Of course we forgive you. I forgive you. Did that a long time ago. That isn’t even in question.”  
“Goodbye Jack O’Neill,” Hlin said, blinking his giant black eyes again. “I sincerely wish you good luck.”

Everything shimmered. Jack’s eyes drifted shut in heartbreak.  
“How did it go?”  
Jack opened his eyes to see he was back in Hank’s office. The General was looking up at him from his desk. Jack grimaced.

 

* * *

 

Priests kept bringing food to the palace dining table. Sam watched Vala pick from tray after tray, sampling the offered fruits and cakes and delicacies with the lofty motions inherent in a Queen, and found herself smiling fondly. The comparison was absurd given the childish plaits of her hair and way she kept licking and sucking on her fingers.

“What?” Vala asked, shrinking guiltily with a piece of sugar glazed cake suspended between her teeth.

“It surprises me how vibrant this city is,” Daniel said, opposite Sam. He was prodding a pastry with a fork. “On other worlds ruled by Goa’uld almost all the people were slaves, made to mine naquadah day in day out. These people have real culture, an appreciation for the arts...”

Cam stabbed a similar pastry with his own fork and presented it in the air. “You saying Nephthys isn’t half bad for an evil space snake?”

“No. This isn’t a result of Nephthys’ leadership. It’s a result of her absence. What surprises me is that she has allowed it to continue. These people seem free to pursue the lives they had made before her recent arrival.”

Vala rolled her eyes impatiently. “Do I have to keep reminding you, Nephthys never had any interest in ruling over anything or anyone. This planet served as her storage facility. Nothing more.”

“Until she needed somewhere to hide,” said Teal’c.  
Daniel used the edge of his fork to cut his pastry into smaller pieces. “And the only reason she is still hiding is because she doesn’t know Anubis, the Replicators and almost all the Goa’uld System Lords have been defeated.”

“Even if she did know she would never take advantage of the situation. At least, not in any typical Goa’uld fashion,” Vala said.  
“There is something about her,” Daniel agreed, gazing distantly. “Something...”  
“Scary,” Vala said. She looked down at her pristine plate. None of the food she’d eaten had even touched it. It had gone straight from her fingers to her mouth.

Daniel bounced his fork on the edge of his finger. “I was going to say ‘odd’...”  
Cam swallowed a large and undignified mouthful and said, “She doesn’t seem all that scary to me.”  
Teal’c set down his metal goblet of drink. “Could it not be Janet Fraiser’s influence?”

“Nephthys did say that she was less inclined to mute out the conscious thoughts of her host,” said Daniel.  
Vala nodded. “That’s because their fear and helplessness amuses her.” She closed her eyes, grimacing the moment half the words were out of her mouth. “...Sorry.”

Sam just reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. She knew the woman didn’t mean to upset her. Knowing more about Nephthys and the way she behaved was a comfort. It would help her to form a rescue strategy.

Daniel had begun daintily to scoop the pieces of his pastry to his mouth with the graceful manoeuvring of his fork. “She’s obviously done something to upset some of the people of this planet or there wouldn’t be rebels planning to overthrow her.”  
Teal’c eyed his teammates along the table. “So long as there is power, people will seek to obtain it.”

“Teal’c’s right,” Cam said, rising off his seat to reach across the table. He sat back with a cake the size of a burger clutched in his hands and then tore into it like a piece of meat. He spoke with his mouth full.  
“It probably has less to do with anything Nephthys did, and more to do with the power she asserts over them.”

Vala finished sucking the sugar from her fingers and said, “I’m trying to tell you, Nephthys is one twisted individual. You only have to look at Marduk and Anubis. She is not like other Goa’uld. She has no interest in ruling. She only wishes to cause chaos and anarchy and anguish...”

Sam watched each word shudder from Vala. They had been so focussed on Janet and how to help her that they had been ignoring Vala’s agitated behaviour. Sam had been so preoccupied by her own pain and fear she hadn’t realized Vala had been hiding her own.

As Vala went rigid, Sam felt it too. The naquadah that still coursed through her veins sizzled at the approach of a Goa’uld. Even before Nephthys’s voice pierced the sanctuary of their intimate group, it was painfully obvious Vala was terrified.  
“Oh Qetesh. I have missed the way you used to flatter me.”

Cam, Daniel and Teal’c tensed, and reached for weapons they just didn’t have. They could see the Goa’uld walking towards them from the across the hall, but Sam had to turn on her seat and look over her shoulder.

She hated to see Janet’s eyes so bright and yet so dark. She hated seeing her look so beautiful, hated the way the golden light from the arched windows lit her skin and skipped in her hair, longer and full of lavish waves that would feel so soft and silken running through her fingers.

She hated the way she felt, watching Janet’s hips as Nephthys walked in them. She hated the way she could hear Janet’s voice and not hear Janet.

Mostly she hated that Vala was shivering beside her, and that Nephthys came right up behind her and Sam couldn’t even move.

Nephthys perched her fingers on Vala’s shoulders, digging into bone. A hiss quaked in between Vala’s teeth and she held her breath, eyes shimmering and unfocused, concentrating only on not moving and not giving Nephthys a reason to hurt her.

“Her name is Vala,” Daniel said, tactfully, making sure to look the Goa’uld fiercely in the eyes. Nephthys took her fingers from Vala’s shoulders with the elegant wave of her hands, but settled one against her cheek and the other in her hair.

Sam cringed, her heart pounding. The hand snaking around Vala’s cheek was braced with a golden Goa’uld hand device. Vala’s fingers were curled and trembling. Sam wished she was brave enough to stand up and pull Nephthys off her, but the Goa’uld’s hand slipped lower down Vala’s cheek and cradled her chin.

If Nephthys wanted to kill Vala, there was nothing any of them could do about it. All Sam could do was hope Nephthys wouldn’t violate the Asgard treaty.

With little effort, The Goa'uld eased Vala’s head back, petting her hair with the mockery of affection. The little sounds and squeaks Vala made cut little wounds into Sam’s heart. She only watched because Janet had no choice and the least Sam could do was stand her ground.

Cam inched forward and backward in his seat uselessly, jaw tight and eyes ablaze. Sam knew, like her, his skin was itching all over being unable to act. Teal’c kept a close eye on Nephthys’ hands and Vala’s condition. Daniel had not broken his contact with Nephthys gaze once.

Nephthys began to graze the cold metallic tips of her hand device along the tightened skin of Vala’s crudely stretched neck, slowly up and down. “All of who Qetesh was, her memories, her thoughts, her feelings, they remain inside Vala’s mind. What are we if not the sum of our feelings and experiences?”  
“But those thoughts and feelings need self awareness,” said Daniel.

Vala’s eyes were closed, but Sam noticed tears glistening on her long, dark lashes.  
“Believe me, Daniel Jackson. There is a very thin and fragile line separating what makes this woman Vala Mal Doran, and what once made her Qetesh.” Nephthys wrapped one hand tightly around both of Vala’s plaits and gave a short and vicious tug.

A fretful whine rose from Vala’s throat and her legs kicked under the table with panic. With a quiet sob of regret she composed herself, shaking as Nephthys drew tender lines around her frightened yet beautiful features.

“Shall I show you?” Nephthys asked, exposing the curious encrusted jewel on her palm and lifting it over Vala’s forehead. The woman’s eyes flashed open and her breath came fast through her nose.

All three men launched to their feet but could only stand and watch, helplessly. Sam held her breath, watching the way Vala’s legs squirmed beneath the table as though she tried to dig herself away with her heels.

The jewel glowed and Vala sobbed and tightly shut her eyes, hands shaking on the table. Sam reached for one, snatching the trembling form into her hand.

“Stop!” Sam looked up at Nephthys and didn’t care how afraid she looked. “Stop,” she said again, “Unless you intend to violate the Asgard treaty. Then there will be nothing stopping us beaming you aboard our ship and ripping you from your host.”

Vala’s fingers clenched so tightly around the blonde’s, Sam was almost in tears of pain herself. Nephthys deactivated the hand device and smiled at her as she released her hold of Vala. The trembling woman sat forward gingerly, as if expecting Nephthys to grab her again.

“At least you finally acknowledge that she’s mine,” Nephthys said to Sam.  
Sam grit her teeth and swallowed to keep from retorting. Without breaking eye contact, Nephthys reached for Vala’s hair again. The instant her hand rested flatly on the crown of her head, Vala tensed and curled in on herself with a small sob.

Nephthys turned, bringing herself right up against Vala’s back. “To think. All those hundreds of years trapped in stasis and I am freed only a few short of preventing the Tok’ra removing Qetesh from your pretty little head.”

The wicked tips of the hand device pressed against Vala’s cheek, and drew small circles. The muscles beneath Daniel’s eyes twitched.

“Yeah, well,” said Cam, “Them’s the breaks.”  
Nephthys chuckled and let Vala go again. “As you say.”  
“Will there be anything else?” Cam spat, smiling dangerously.

“Nothing for now,” Nephthys said, walking around the table. ‘We can have our first formal negotiation this evening. Until then, feel free to explore the city.” On her way past Sam, she cupped her cheek. “Try not to get yourselves killed again.” Her fingers brushed around the back of Sam’s neck as she turned and walked away, and the tickling of short hairs there sent shivers scampering down Sam’s spine.

Not one of them moved until the Goa’uld was gone from sight. Sam hesitated but reached an arm around Vala’s shoulders. She felt her body jerk at first but then relax into her comforting touch.

“Are you alright, Vala Mal Doran?” Teal’c asked, the depth of his concern as heavy as his voice.  
Vala sniffed and smiled. “See? What I tell you?”  
Cam bowed his head shamefully as he sat back down. “Starting to see what you mean.”

Sam rubbed gently back and forth across Vala’s shoulders. Daniel’s brow was contorted in thought, a finger curled ponderously over his lips. Whatever was on his mind the man didn’t say. Unless it was a way to get Nephthys off this planet and help Janet, Sam didn’t want to hear it anyway.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daniel confuses Cam and makes a promise to Vala.

What happened in the dining hall was exactly what Cam feared the most. He was prepared, every fibre of his being, the moment that fucking beam touched Vala, to launched across the table and break the Goa’uld’s fucking hand off.

Only it wasn’t just Nephthys he had to concern himself about. Anything he did to her, he did to Janet Fraiser. It would have been stupid, to say the least. There were priests everywhere. He didn’t know what kind of firepower they had.

He had never felt more useless in his life. His skin crawled, his guts churned, and sharp metal things scratching the inside of his skull. Vala was right in front of him. Just an arm’s reach across the table.

He didn’t even tell Nephthys to let her go. He hadn’t said a word. In every sense he had failed as their leader. If they couldn’t put their faith and their trust in him, then he had no right being among them at all.

When he thought of what might have happened if Sam hadn’t spoken up, his throat convulsed. Logically, if Nephthys had used the hand device on Vala, the treaty would be void. Logically, Nephthys wanted the safety of the treaty so they had no way of rescuing Dr Fraiser.

Right now, logic was a make-believe thing, a luxury Cam denied himself. He was unfit to be the leader of SG-1. He hadn’t listened to Vala when she told him how dangerous Nephthys was. He hadn’t taken her seriously. Essentially, he realized, he didn’t respect her opinion.

“Does something trouble you, Cameron Mitchell?”   
Cam looked up from his knees to see Teal’c standing in the doorway to his room.   
“Oh. No, Teal’c, I’m coming. Sorry.” Cam stood up from the bed, turning distractedly. Teal’c stepped into the room.

“There was nothing you could have done any differently today.”  
Cam met his unflinching gaze incredulously. Eventually his shoulders sagged and a breath rushed from his lungs. “So why can I think of a million different ways I could have handled it?”  
“The actions you could have taken would be infinite. The results, surely, would all have been the same. You were right to take no action at all.”

Cam laughed mirthlessly. “Sam...At least she said something.”  
Teal’c looked more grave, and almost scared. It was not the reaction Cam had expected and it gave him pause.

Teal’c’s eyes shifted as though he saw terrible things. “Janet Fraiser knows that Samantha Carter cannot sit idly by while someone she cares for suffers before her eyes. Nephthys would know this as well. If Nephthys wished us to be the first to violate the terms of the Asgard treaty that protect us, there would be no easier way than through Colonel Carter.”

Cam knew there were few people Teal’c respected more than Sam and Daniel, and the pain in his voice was clear.

“How can you know that for sure?” Cam asked.   
The Jaffa did not face him. He stood with hands clasped at his back. “Ten years ago, a Goa’uld called Nirrti decimated the entire population of a planet visited by SG-1. She left only one survivor, a young girl named Cassandra. But she had placed within the girl a bomb capable of destroying much of Earth’s population.”

Cam nodded. “Yeah, I uhh...I read the file.”  
“Then you will know that Colonel Carter disobeyed direct orders and stayed with Cassandra when the bomb was due to detonate.”  
Cam sighed, conceding.

“She interfered with the ritual sacrifice on Ombos because she could not bear to allow it to happen. She has always been like this.” Teal’c turned and stared directly into Cam’s eyes. “We follow your lead, Cameron Mitchell. You did not act today. Samantha Carter did. She put all of us at risk doing so. At the very least she risked our chances at these negotiations for Earth’s defences. Nephthys still has the right to order the Asgard to remove us even without provocation.”

The Jaffa spoke almost furiously. He was also right. Nephthys could have easily decided to punish Sam for her outburst by denying them the hope of acquiring a ZPM, even the hope of somehow rescuing Dr Fraiser.

Cam slumped. Teal’c knew Sam and Daniel inside out. Cam was lucky for it. He slapped his hand on Teal’c’s shoulder and held it gratefully. The Jaffa had obviously come to him with this concern in the first place. Cam needed to listen. He needed to be a better leader.

“Thanks,” he said.   
Teal’c bowed.   
“Lets...cut Sam some slack,” Cam went on, realizing he had to cut himself some slack as well. Teal’c also appeared grateful for Cam’s leniency. It was no secret he cared deeply for Sam. The man hated to see her used. Hated to see the beautiful qualities that made her so special used against her, against all of them.

“Is everyone ready?” Cam asked.  
“All but Daniel Jackson await in the main chamber,” reported Teal’c.   
“Alright. I’ll go get him.”

Daniel was sitting on his bed, the tablet propped on his thighs. The light from the screen glowed in his lenses.   
Cam held onto the doorframe and suspended himself into the room. “Hey.”  
Daniel looked up. “Hey.”

Cam released the doorframe and swung inside like a floppy marionette. “You coming?”  
“Nah. Gonna try and...” Daniel pursed his lips together, smiling humourlessly. “Yep.”  
“Right. Look, I uhh...I wanted to ask you something.”

Daniel sat up on the bed and lowered his knees. “What is it?”  
Cam pressed his fingertips together. “Do you think it’s possible? That Nephthys can turn Vala back into Qetesh even without...the symbiote Qetesh?”

“Ah,” Daniel said, removing his glasses and hoisting his legs over the bed. He set the tablet aside and folded his glasses beside it. “That, I must admit, I am not entirely qualified to answer. Basically it comes down to what we know of self consciousness and self awareness.”

Cam detected a lecture coming on and suddenly regretted asking. Just a little.

“Philosophers have tried to determine what it is that we call our ‘self’ and how it forms. When a symbiote, Goa’uld or Tok’ra, blend with a human host they cannot help but share with each other all that makes them who they are. David Hume proposed that the self is merely made up of our perceptions, what we experience. In that sense, Qetesh is still a complete identity within Vala. It’s a bit like having multiple personalities, only Vala herself never provided Qetesh with consciousness. That was the symbiote.”

Cam rubbed the back of his neck and then clapped. “Let’s pretend I followed half of what you said. What do you think Nephthys was going to do to Vala back there at the dining table?”

“Well, if a Goa’uld’s memories, feelings, thought patterns, everything that formed her identity really does remain in the host even after the symbiote is removed, perhaps Nephthys believes it’s possible to force Vala’s consciousness to draw from the identity of Qetesh rather than that of Vala. Kind of like...changing train lines. Initially the train of thought runs on a track through Vala’s collective experiences. If Nephthys could find a way to flip the switch so the lines changed, the train would cross over into the collective experience of Qetesh and run through her identity.”

Cam shut his eyes, struggling to keep up. There was really only one thing he wanted to know. “Has it ever happened before? Has a former host ever reverted to their Goa’uld identity without the influence of the symbiote?”

Daniel didn’t answer. When Cam opened his eyes he saw Vala standing in the doorway and mentally kicked himself.

“Is it possible, Daniel?” Vala asked, tapping her nails together. “Can she do it? Can she...make it so I’m...no longer me?”  
Daniel stood and walked over to her. He sighed. “Honestly...I don’t know.”  
Vala flinched and backed away anxiously.

“But!” Daniel held up his hands preventatively. The problem was he hadn’t exactly prepared what he was going to say. Vala’s dark ocean eyes were wide open with hope and Cam shifted uncomfortably in the time Daniel desperately searched for something reassuring to say.

“Look at it this way,” he said finally. “Without the influence of the Symbiote’s consciousness, even if Nephthys did somehow...activate Qetesh as the dominant personality, it couldn’t be stable. You are more than just a collection of memories. You are more than just the residual effects of an invading mind.” Daniel held her shoulders. “You are stronger because you are complete. Mind. Body. Soul. Qetesh? She’s just some...leftover scraps.”

Vala sniffed and a smile bloomed fleetingly across her lips. “If she does-”  
“She won’t.”  
“Daniel. If Nephthys brings out Qetesh in me...Don’t let me hurt anyone.”  
“It won’t happen.”  
Vala threw down her fists defiantly. “Daniel. Please.”  
“Vala...”  
“Promise me.”

Daniel lifted his hands and held her cheeks, brushing his thumbs gently beneath her eyes. “I will bring you back. That, I promise.”

 

* * *

 

The streets bustled with activity, the sandstone city shining under an overhead sun. Children ran around them and between them, laughing and chasing. Daniel was right. These people were still thriving, and they seemed relatively free.

It made Cam uneasy. There was something else going on here. Maybe it was a different story outside the city walls. He would make sure to find out from the rebels.

Once the palace was obscured from sight, Shu spoke to Cam.   
“We have acquired one of the mining vessels. We are able to take you and your friends to the Camp, but we must leave now.”  
“Uh, that might be a problem,” Cam said, as they turned into a narrow market street. “Daniel’s not with us. Also, we don’t know when Nephthys is going to call us in for negotiations.”

“Not until late this evening. I heard her speak with another priest.”  
The stall owners shouted their wares, peddling trinkets and curios. Sam gently urged Vala along, keeping her from lingering too long at anything shiny.

“Okay, then I still have one more problem,” Cam said, “No doubt you rebels will have weapons. I’d feel a lot better if we had ours back before we met.”  
“I can give you zat’nik’tels onboard the mining vessel. We must leave now. It is scheduled to depart very soon,” Shu said. His sharp gestures compounded the urgency in his voice.

“Alright, alright.” Cam turned to the others. “Guys. Shu says we gotta go meet these rebels now or never.”  
“What about Daniel?” Vala asked.   
“Hopefully we’ll be back before anyone notices we’re missing. And Nephthys can’t touch him, remember? Well...can’t hurt him anyway.”

“Alright. I guess we have to go,” Sam shrugged.   
Cam turned back to Shu and held out his arm. “Lead the way.”  
“The Station is this way,” said Shu.

The mining vessel turned out to be a Tel’tak. In spite of what appeared to Cam to be heavy security, they all but waltzed onboard in the middle of a busy shipyard. The ship took them up out of the city, and across endless desert.

Peppered across the sand, in between forests of stone and twisted rock, were decrepit camps. Cam looked out the window in disgust. “This is more what we’re used to,” he said grimly.

“You are starting to get a more complete picture of the trouble our people are in,” Shu said sadly. “Before Nephthys came, our people were prosperous. We used these ships freely. Now they are used to transport naquadah for our ‘god’. The city you have seen...it was once open to us. Under the rule of Nephthys...” Shu stared distantly at the tumbling dunes that rolled beneath them.

“Look,” said Cam, “We’re going to help you. But you gotta understand, we need Nephthys alive.”  
Shu sighed and nodded. “There. Our headquarters.”

They approached a large brick and metal factory. It would not have looked out of place on Langara. Sam half expected Jonas Quinn to greet them when they landed. She thought of his perpetually friendly smile and wondered how the kid was doing since they last saw him.

The Tal’tek came to rest on the sandy grounds outside the factory. Fingers twitching by the zats on their belts, SG-1 disembarked from the ship and followed Shu across the grounds. It was when Teal’c pointed out some familiar two-wheeled vehicles that Cam’s blood pressure elevated.

“The people who killed us outside the city. They were riding those,” Sam said. The vehicles were lined up along the outside wall of the factory.   
“Hey, Shu. What’s that about? Huh? You neglected to tell us the guys that shot us were your guys,” Cam said, bringing the group to a stop.

Shu turned, nodding. “Yes. I was afraid you would not trust me if I told you. When you first arrived, you looked strange to them. You appeared from nowhere. They assumed you must have been working with Nephthys. Rest assured I have told them you do not.”

“Gonna need a little more than that to reassure me,” Cam said, warily.   
“Please,” Shu implored. He rubbed his short dark hair and held his arms open. “I’ve brought you here at great risk. If it will put you at ease I will go in and ask our leader to come out and meet you alone.”

Cam considered his offer. He was sure Teal’c or Sam or Vala could fly the Tal’tek if they needed to leave in a hurry. And four zats against one man was certainly a lot better than entering the hideout of a bunch of guys who riddled them with bullets only yesterday.

“Okay. Go get him. We’ll wait here.”  
Shu smiled and bounced enthusiastically. “Great. I’ll go get him!”  
The boy hurried off, throwing open the heavy factory doors and propelling himself inside.   
“I’m not the only one with a bad feeling, right?” Cam asked the others.

“You kidding? I felt more comfortable at the palace,” Vala said, swinging her zat and sticking a hand on her slanted hip.

With a rusty creak the factory doors swung open again and an unfamiliar man in tightly wound cloths and handmade armour buckled over his chest walked across the sand towards them.   
“SG-1. Welcome.”  
“You must be the leader of the rebels,” Cam said.  
“Runihura. Call me Runi. You are Cam. Shu has told me all about you. All of you. You oppose the rule of Nephthys. That makes us allies.”

He wasn’t an overly tall man but he was broad shouldered and gruff, with wild, unkempt hair. Cam looked him over for any weapons he might be concealing.   
“We’ve mined enough naquadah to blow up several key locations within the city. The palace can be taken easily in the confusion,” Runi declared proudly.

“Yeah, about that,” said Cam, “We would appreciate it if when you took the palace, you didn’t kill Nephthys.”  
Runi’s smile faltered. “I don’t understand.   
“You’re right that she isn’t a god. There’s another living creature living inside her, controlling her. We want to try and remove that creature,” Cam explained.

“The woman you can see, she’s innocent,” Sam said, “She isn’t the one committing these crimes against your people. She needs to be saved.”  
Runi looked between the two Colonels. “You want to save Nephthys?”  
“No! No, no,” Vala said quickly. “Not Nephthys, just the woman she has taken control of.”

Runi frowned and folded his arms. His eyes narrowed, and thoughtful lines drew across his brow. Cam exchanged an anxious look with Sam. Teal’c tapped the zat hanging from his belt. Finally the man looked up.

“This is a trick.”  
Cam’s heart sank. “No. It’s not a trick. We’re willing to help you, we just need to save our friend.”  
“Nephthys is your friend?” The rebel leader’s voice nearly shook.   
“Look, if you just helped us capture her, we could show you what we mean. We could invite the Tok’ra here to remove the creature from her head,” Sam insisted desperately.

“Tok...ra?” They were losing him. The man was hissing angrily. Cam felt himself holding the zat at his belt.   
“Yep. We’re dead. Again,” Vala muttered.   
“Nephthys must die,” Runi growled.   
“No!” Cam said, wincing when Runihura twitched at his outburst. “Listen. Please, listen.”

The rebel leader faced him, scathingly, but patiently. Cam’s heart was thunder in his chest. There was no doubt that this was the last opportunity to plead his case for Janet’s life. Everything hung on the balance of his next words.

“The woman you think is Nephthys is just an ordinary human being, like you and me. There is a small, snake-like creature that has burrowed its way into her head through the back of the neck. It’s controlling her. That creature is Nephthys. We will help you destroy her but you have to let us remove her from our friend.”

Runi’s eyes were dark slits on his windburnt face, like black coal buried in the sand. “I believe you.”  
Cam breathed a sigh of relief.   
“But it will be hard for me to convince all of my people that such a creature is responsible for all their suffering. They will not believe that this friend of yours is not Nephthys.” Runihura held up his hand.

Cam’s heart stopped. Rising like pale spikes on top of the factory were men and women holding weapons. He was foolish to think they’d ever had any advantage.

“A victory without proof of her demise will mean nothing,” Runi said, as more people in rags and improvised armour came out from the factory. Shu was among them, evading his gaze. “If your ultimate goal is to prevent us from killing Nephthys then I am glad you are assembled here. Lock them up. And separate them. I don’t want them able to work together to conceive any escape before we can execute our plan.”

Cam felt the zat taken from him. He expected to feel the shock of the weapon sizzle over his body, but instead his wrists were cuffed behind him.   
“No. Please. Don’t do this,” Sam begged, as they were forced towards the factory. “Please! You’re killing an innocent woman! Please!”

“Runihura. There was another with them, but he stayed behind at the palace,” Shu said to the leader.   
“He will not matter.”  
“Cam has a communication device in his pouch,” Shu added. Cam rolled his head backwards in disappointment, cursing silently as the pouch was whipped open and the radio removed.

Sam suddenly stamped her boot on her captor’s knee. The leg snapped inwards with a sickening crunch. The rebel fell, shrieking continuously in pain as Sam broke free.  
“Sam! No!” Cam cried.

He went cold, waiting for the crack of gunfire from the factory rooftop. To his relief Sam was easily knocked out with a single shot from a zat gun.

He’d really screwed this up. Maybe it would have been better to tell Nephthys about the plan against her. At least then Janet Fraiser wouldn’t be in danger.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Turns out Nephthys is just an old romantic fool.

Daniel collapsed backwards on the bed, the tablet on his stomach. The Asgard treaty was air tight. Short of convincing Nephthys to leave Sekhem of her own volition, there was no chance of catching the Goa’uld outside of Asgard protected space.

She had no reason to leave, and every reason to stay. One day, perhaps, she might tire of her limited freedom, but there was no telling when that day would be. A year from now, a hundred, a decade was as good as a day to a Goa’uld, especially one with so many sarcophagi.

That was something else that troubled Daniel. The long term effects of using the sarcophagus would affect not only Nephthys, but Janet as well. At least for now it didn’t appear she had much need of them.

Daniel closed his eyes, trapping burning tears. He couldn’t help Janet. He was feeling his heart splitting down the middle at the reality that he would have to abandon her again, when the ground rumbled and splendid orange light filled his room from the window.

Daniel shot up and looked out at the city. Fire and smoke licked and spilled from behind a stack of stone buildings. Black plumes loomed into a harsh overcast sky. Screams of panic rose like a terrible choir from the streets.

A second explosion lit the whole city in a violent red light, and Daniel could feel the heat even through the glass pane. The palace shook and things fell and crashed outside his room.

By the time Daniel scrambled to his feet and raced into the main chamber of the guest quarters, the eruptions from outside were so frequent and getting so close that the last blast to go off almost tossed him across the floor.

He threw open the chamber door and raced down the corridor. Priests carrying unfamiliar golden weapons ran in uniform lines across the halls. Servants scampered in every direction. Stone sculptures and artistic bowls and vases fell and shattered with every rumble from outside, setting dust spinning into the air.

“Hey!” Daniel chased after a group of priests. “I can help! Give me a weapon!”  
The priest pulled from his grip and followed the rest of his group. Daniel pursued them through the palace and was just far enough behind to avoid the wave of rock and stone that swallowed them as a bomb went off outside the wall.

Daniel landed flat on his back and coughed the dust and mortar from his lungs. He didn’t even want to stick around to find out what had happened. He simply rolled onto his hands and knees and scurried awkwardly to his feet in the opposite direction.

He could hear gunfire behind him, and the shatter of stone right next to his ear as he rounded the corner. He needed to find a weapon. A group of servants almost stampeded him as he turned down another corridor.

Daniel held up his arms and felt them bump and push around him. When he looked up and saw the way was clear he kicked into a run. He didn’t get very far when a figure rounded the corner. There was a strange pressure under his jaw and his body slammed backwards into the wall.

Coughing and spluttering, Daniel blinked dazedly to find Nephthys leering up at him.  
“Nephthys!” he croaked through clenched teeth. He tried to back away, which was impossible stuck to the wall, and when his feet found no purchase on the ground he realized it was because he wasn’t on the ground.

Nephthys’ hand was under his jaw, his whole weight suspended by his skull. Daniel hissed an ironic laugh and did his best to speak though his throat was partially restricted.  
“You know, even from this angle, I know this looks really strange.”  
Nephthys smirked and lowered the significantly taller man to his feet. Daniel coughed and rubbed his jaw.

“So,” he said breathlessly, “I’m betting they have your every exit blocked. There’s going to be no way out of the city. The Asgard don’t need to protect you from your own people.”  
“Are you saying you incited this rebellion?” Nephthys asked, contemptuously.  
“Oh I’ve read the treaty enough times to know even that would be a violation of the terms that protect us.”

“Where are your friends?”  
“I haven’t seen them since this morning.”  
Nephthys sneered suspiciously. There was a sudden shout and the rattle of gunfire. Nephthys pulled Daniel close and suddenly he was watching bullets ping and flick off the Goa’uld’s shield.

When the assault broke to reload the rifles, Nephthys thrust out her palm and sent the rebels flying down the corridor so fast that Daniel could hear their bodies break and split apart on the impact against the intersecting wall.

Daniel gasped and panted in shock. He’d never seen that kind of power from the hand device. There was that time Sam pounded Setesh into the ground, but the impact didn’t burst his body open. Daniel supposed the Goa’uld symbiote offered the body that kind of resistance, even at the moment of death.

“Can’t your ship beam them here?” Nephthys asked, taking Daniel by the wrist and leading him through the palace.  
“Cam has the only radio, thanks to you, and I would question the sense of beaming them into the middle of a revolutionary war.”

“Oh, I have a feeling they’d rather be here than where they currently are,” Nephthys said cryptically.  
“Shu!” Daniel recognized the priest stepping in through a hole in a damaged wall. The priest jumped and, seeing Nephthys, clumsily lifted his rifle and fired.

The bullets struck the shield and Daniel ducked for cover.  
“Wait, no!” Daniel implored hastily before Nephthys could used her hand device to kill him. He hurried to her side as she had the boy on his knees, shuddering under the power of the cruel weapon.

“He might know where they are,” Daniel said.  
Nephthys clucked her tongue disappointedly and deactivated the deadly beam. Shu dropped onto his hands, moaning miserably.

“What the hell is going on? Where are my friends?”  
Shu stammered. “I-I took them to our Camp.”  
“Are they here? Are they fighting?”  
Shu swallowed and coughed again. He winced and sobbed, shivering in fear at Nephthys’ feet. “No. Our leader decided that N...Nephthys needed to die. He couldn’t risk letting your friends save her.”

Nephthys giggled at Daniel. “Awww. That’s so touching.”  
Daniel glared at the boy and tightened his fists. “Where are they?”  
“At the Camp! They’re alive, I swear! I-I can take you to them. Just, please don’t kill me!”

Daniel only just had time to feel his heart pound as another figure stepped through the hole in the wall. He saw the body shudder and heard a wet crunch, and it dropped to the floor. He stared at Nephthys, agape.

“I think I should kill him and use one of the other radios to signal the Odyssey,” the Goa’uld shrugged, holding her palm down at Shu.

Shu began to hyperventilate. “M-My ship is just through that wall! Please! Please!”  
Daniel felt heat and stones against his back. The force of the blast even took Nephthys by surprise. Daniel caught her in his arms as they both fell.

A troop of rebels flew out of the smoke above them. Daniel cried out and clung tightly to Nephthys. A second later he heard shouts and screams and then the woman was hitting him to let her go.  
Daniel opened his arms and rolled flat onto his back, blinking up at the confusion. Nephthys tended the distressed state of her hair and spat reluctantly. “Fine. We’ll follow this traitorous priest.”

 

* * *

 

Daniel couldn’t believe the destruction Nephthys was capable of. Surely she had made some amendments to the design of the hand device. Or maybe most Goa’uld preferred the death of their enemies to be more intimate, to see the life drain from their eyes beneath them. Maybe this power was inherent in all hand devices and he had just never seen it used this way.

Vala did insist there was something different about Nephthys. He’d certainly seen enough now to know that was true.

As Shu led them through the rebel base, Nephthys blew apart every rebel in their path leaving in their wake a frightening mess of limbs and gore.

“Here! The cells are here!” Shu trembled with the key while Daniel and Nephthys waited behind him. The key turned in the lock and he pulled open the rusty brown door. Vala’s eyes glinted in the darkness as she focussed on her rescuers.

“Daniel?”  
“Vala!”  
Vala leapt to her feet, but quickly shielded herself with her arms. Nephthys had caught Shu in the kinetic beam of her hand device and a second later, hammered a bloody hole right through his skull from behind. The body slumped forward with a dull thud.

“What are you...?” Daniel froze when Nephthys turned on him. Vala shouted but Daniel crumpled to his knees under the funnel of deadly energy.  
Vala edged desperately out of her cell. “Nephthys. Please...”  
“Come with me, or I’ll kill him.” The demand was cold, and settled over Vala’s skin like a layer of burning ice.

She looked from Daniel, rigid and gagging on his knees, and the murderous shine in Nephthys’ eyes.  
She lifted her hand and placed it nervously on the Goa’uld’s shoulder. “Anywhere. Just let him go.”  
Nephthys flinched in surprise. The beam from her hand device crackled and died away and Daniel slumped to the ground.

Vala felt a hand clutch tightly around her wrist. This was the moment she had been dreading since arriving on the planet. She shouldn’t have come. But knowing it was important to Daniel to find closure over Janet Fraiser’s death, she wanted to do everything she could to help him.

She followed Nephthys out of the factory and on board the Tel’tak. She huddled on the co-pilot seat, hugging her knees. “Where are we going?” she asked as Nephthys flew the ship into the sky.

Vala watched the desert winds kicking sand in rolling waves across the dunes. Nephthys’ silence was terrifying and profoundly comforting at the same time. It was familiar, so familiar, simply being alone in her presence.

“I’m surprised you left them alive. You know they will come for me.”  
Nephthys smirked. “I don’t doubt they will. The question is, will it be you they find or someone else?”  
Vala trained her features defiantly. No matter what happened to her, Daniel would bring her back. He promised.

 

* * *

 

“God, Sam...” Daniel stepped cautiously into the cell as Sam got shakily to her feet, slotted mournfully inside the darkest corner of the rank room. He carefully took her hands in his, looking over the bloody, shredded skin of her knuckles, testament to how desperately she had tried to escape her cell. Sam withered, and Daniel cupped her cheek. 

“Nephthys escaped. Janet is fine.”

Sam released a wobbly breath. Daniel smiled at her as Sam fell against him. Her arms wrapped completely around his back, hands tugging firmly into his shoulder blades.  
“I thought...”  
“Yeah.”

“Yeah, Nephthys escaped,” said Cam, as the two of them walked together out of the cell to meet him and Teal’c. “With Vala.”  
Sam frowned. “...Why would she risk taking Vala when harming her would violate the Asgard treaty?”

Daniel rubbed his temples, still feeling the effects of the hand device. “I don’t think she planned it. It was more a...spur of the moment...a...crime of passion, so to speak.”  
Cam’s eyes fluttered and his lips stretched into a confused smile. “A...what? Care to explain that one?”

Daniel puffed and said, “Well...Nephthys had or has, rather, a thing for Qetesh.”  
Cam snorted and shook his head. “Wait a minute. You’re saying Nephthys was in love with Qetesh? She’s gay?”

Daniel crossed his arms. “I realized it during breakfast. We were all surprised Nephthys allowed Vala to live when she helped get her a ship two years ago. In my research I found references to the profound relationship Nephthys shared with Isis. Now, Isis left her became involved with Osiris. At that time Nephthys must have taken an interest in Qetesh. It must have been part of the reason Seth did what he did to her. You also have to realize that the Goa’uld don’t really have any gender.”

“So that’s why Vala’s been acting so weird,” Cam realized.

“Should we not inform the Asgard of what has transpired?” said Teal’c.  
Daniel grimaced and looked apprehensively amongst his team. “I’m not sure they will be able to help us.”  
“Why not?” Sam demanded.  
“When you conspired with the rebels we essentially forfeited our own protection.”

“How are the Asgard going to know we conspired with them or not?”  
“There are living witnesses. Their leader, for one,” said Cam, “And Nephthys will argue the fact in her defence forcing the Asgard to investigate anyway. Time I’m sure we don’t have. Now, we need to find where Nuriwhatsit put my radio so we can get the hell outa...”

Cam stepped backwards, peering around the interior of the Odyssey bridge. “Here...”  
“Colonel Mitchell. You hadn’t made contact in over six hours,” said Davidson, swivelling around in his Captain’s chair. “Orders came from Landry to beam you off the planet. We couldn’t locate all of you...”

“What?” Cam approached the scanner console where Major Womack sat. “Whatta ya mean you couldn’t locate all of us?”  
“Either that last beacon has been disabled or Nephthys has some way of blocking it from our scanners,” Womack explained.

“What’s going on? What’s happened?” Davidson asked in short demanding tones.  
“Nephthys has taken Vala,” said Daniel. He began to pace anxiously. “She intends to revert her back to Qetesh.”

“How can she do that? I thought the Tok’ra removed her symbiote,” Davidson said, his thick old eyebrows coming together sceptically.  
“Nephthys plans to use other means,” Teal’c said.  
Sam made her way to the consoles, hovering over Womack’s shoulder. “We need to scan the planet for life signs. We’re looking for two, on their own. They couldn’t be too far from where you picked us up.”

Sam watched the software scan the planet according to her criteria. The results showed no two life signs in close proximity separated far enough from any large group.

Sam shook her head, struggling to reconcile with the results. “That’s impossible. That ship surely wasn’t capable of travelling through hyperspace. Nephthys has to be somewhere on the planet where she’s protected.”  
Teal’c stepped up beside her. “Then where is she?”

 

* * *

 

Vala crossed the pale pink stone threshold of the villa, drawn in deeper by its colourful plants and soothing fountains. Every chair and sofa looked luxurious and inviting, and the warm sunlight came in through grand open arches with a view of a calm, sparkling ocean.

Vala sniffed and smiled, thinking that if there was one thing she could trust it was Nephthys taste for pretty things. Although that was fairly evident when the Goa’uld abducted her.

“Do you like it?” Nephthys said, arriving at her side to admire the view with her. “I had the whole building beamed off one of Seth’s planets. He liked this one. He was very upset when he found it and all the whores inside missing. I’ve since redecorated. Had the whores removed and all these pretty flowers brought in.”

“It’s lovely.”  
Nephthys smiled. If Vala could bring herself to look she would see nothing sinister about it, nothing evil in it. And that would terrify her.  
“Perhaps you’d like to make yourself comfortable.” Nephthys stepped down from the foyer and moved across the living room the way a swan floated across water. “Before we begin.”

Vala hugged herself and slowly slouched down the steps. “Begin screwing with my mind you mean.”  
Nephthys turned around. “You do remember, Vala. You do remember what we shared. It’s there, inside you, and you feel it even now.”

As she spoke Nephthys had closed the distance between them. Vala knew the way she was looking at her, but couldn’t meet her gaze. She focussed anywhere but her eyes. They may not have been familiar eyes, but what she would see inside would be unbearably so.

“Quite strongly, in fact,” she said, honestly, “But there is also a part of me that is deeply and utterly disgusted by you. The thought of you makes me physically ill.”

Nephthys tipped her head. “I can help with that.” She reached out a small hand, another thing Vala was unused to, but her touch was as strong now as it had been hundreds of years ago.

Vala swallowed and her voice hitched. “You can’t bring her back. No matter how badly you want to believe. No matter what you try to do to me it won’t bring back Qetesh.”  
A small, soft thumb rubbed over Vala’s cheekbone. Vala had crumbled under much less. She might still.  
“Shhh...I know you’re scared, Vala. You think that by convincing me it can’t be done that you can convince yourself. But you don’t know, do you? You have no idea if I can bring her back or not.”

The taller woman’s lips tightened and her chin tensed, the prelude of quiet sobbing. Vala tried to pull away, to shrink and be swallowed by some cloak of darkness Nephthys couldn’t breach. But there was a feeling in her that wouldn’t let her. There were emotions that had been surfacing ever since she had been forced to remember the lover of the Goa’uld that once possessed her.

“Perhaps you are right,” said Nephthys. “Perhaps I will fail. But that won’t matter. I will keep trying. I will not give up on her.”  
Vala suddenly ducked away as Nephthys opened the hand device over her. “You can’t! The...the Asgard treaty...”  
Nephthys smiled pityingly. “It can’t protect you anymore. Let us begin.”

The jewel glowed. Then the horrible beam of energy pressed painfully into her head, somehow making her feel as though her skull were breaking again and again and again, that hot pokers were drilling and swirling around inside her head, that she was drowning even if air passed freely in and out of her lungs.

Light popped and bloomed over her vision, swimming and spinning and fading. She came to be aware of a peaceful blue and of soft, rustling noise. A cool breeze whispered against her face, lifting her hair.

Vala furrowed her brow in confusion and her eyes wandered in surprise. There were tall trees all around, and she stood in the middle of a lush clearing. Valla turned, looking everywhere for an explanation or an indication of where she was and how she got there.

She made a full rotation and, turning around again, yelped in alarm. Vala clutched her heart and backed away.  
The woman with her held up her hands. “It’s okay. It’s alright. I’m not her.”  
The stranger certainly looked like her, or her most recent host. But Vala suddenly knew it wasn’t.  
“You’re Janet Fraiser,” she said, still holding her hand to her chest.

Janet smiled and took a step closer. Her hair was short and even though it lacked the lustre and vibrancy given to it by Nephthys, Vala decided she looked very pretty with straight, drab locks. Her clothing was casual, and pale, almost as though anything brighter couldn’t exist on her.

“I’m able to reach you through the neural link created by the hand device,” Janet explained knowledgeably.  
“That may well be but you still don’t sneak up on a girl like that.” Vala pressed fingers to her brow as if she expected a hole to be there, or her skin to be hot to the touch.

Janet giggled sheepishly. “Sorry. I was here the whole time just...you were looking up.”  
Vala pick her finger. “Oh. So, where am I?”  
“You’re still at the villa,” Janet admitted.  
“None of this is real,” Vala realized, walking across the clearing.

“Depends on your perspective. It’s as real as it needs to be. I thought it would make you feel calm.” Janet turned as Vala passed her, and watched her examine the beautiful environment.  
Vala observed the way the pointy trees swayed and moved slightly in the gentle breeze. She could hear birds. “What’s happening?”

Janet put her thumbs in her trouser pockets. “Nephthys is attempting to realign your consciousness with the identity of Qetesh.”  
Vala licked the roof of her mouth and swallowed. “And...you’re...”  
“Protecting you.”  
“Oh. Thank you.” Vala grinned and let her arms swing against her thighs.

Janet chuckled. “My pleasure.”  
Vala took elaborate strides around the clearing, until her grin waned. “So...what, we’re just going to stand around until she gives up?”

Janet gesticulated anxiously. “That’s all you have to do. I have to stop Nephthys from finding Qetesh without her knowing and then keep her from discovering what I’m doing.”  
“Oh. Right.” Vala bit her lip and swivelled her hip. “Anything I can do?”  
“Just stay calm.”  
Vala pointed. “Right. Calm. Gotcha.”

Vala bounced on her heels and breathed in deeply from the imaginary air, watching a flock of imaginary birds flying in formation across the expanse of blue sky visible in the canopy. Pausing apprehensively, she looked back at Janet. “How’m I doing?”

“Great. You’re doing very well.” Janet had a warm smile. It reached her eyes and made them shine so her whole face was alight in a friendly glow.  
Vala felt a little staggered by how beautiful she was. Then she wondered clumsily if Janet could read her mind.  
“Good!” she said, converging all her focus on the grass. “Well. This is easy.”

The integrity of Janet’s smile quivered a little, in spite of the determination in her eyes.  
“It probably isn’t so easy for you, is it?” Vala observed, nervously picking at her nails.  
“Don’t worry about me,” said Janet, “Just...relax.”

It began to feel as though something were eating through the skin between her eyes. A cold sweat broke all over Vala’s skin as her muscles stiffened and her throat seemed to close to a pin’s width.  
“Vala. Vala!” Janet ducked under the woman just as she began to teeter. She eased her as carefully as she could to the ground. “Vala, look at me.”

Air couldn’t get fast enough into her lungs and felt as thick and hot as scalding water. Vala rasped and wheezed, gagging frantically, eyes watering up at the sky as it flickered like a broken console, and she was in the steel dark corridor of a Ha’tak mothership.

She could feel Janet’s hand brush across her brow, but couldn’t turn her head to look up at her. It felt like her very blood was boiling and trying to melt through her skin from the inside out.  
“Vala. I want you to listen. Can you hear me?”  
Vala opened her mouth, gasping without air. She willed her lips to form the word, “Yes.”

“Good,” Janet said, and Vala could hear the smile in her voice. “Now, I need you to relax. I don’t want you to worry about anything. I’m going to take care of you, alright? You hear me?”  
Vala shook trying to turn her head. She moved her eyes. “...Can’t...!”  
Janet leaned over her so she could see her face, and the unexpected calm in her soulful brown eyes. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Close your eyes.”

That was the last thing Vala wanted to do. She could feel the floor tremor under the heavy feet of marching Jaffa. She could see them arriving to circle around her. She twitched, trying to breathe and to lift her arm and warn Janet.  
“I need you to trust me, Vala. I promise you I won’t let anything happen to you but I need you to relax and close your eyes. Good. Good. See? I’m still here.”

Vala felt Janet’s hands on her face, one holding her cheek, the other smoothing over her burning brow.  
“I want you to focus on a place where you feel safe. Okay? Let me take you there. Are you ready?”  
It hurt too much and she made a voiceless reply. “No.”  
“Vala. I’m not going to let you go. Now focus.”  
Vala cried. It was there and then it was gone.

“That’s it. Good, Vala. I got it. Open your eyes.”

She didn’t need to be told twice. She lurched upwards, ready to scramble away from the surrounding Jaffa, but Janet was the only one with her. Vala shuffled backwards and yelped, backing into something. She tossed her gaze over her shoulder and blinked in bewilderment at the soft woollen texture of a blue bedspread.

She was sitting at the foot of a bed. And all around were featureless grey walls. There was a bookshelf, a modest leather lounge suite, and a small round table. An overly decorated dresser sat under an inspirational poster compensating for a lack of windows.

She only then realized she was breathing, air fully filling her lungs almost to bursting, and she gasped a little to get her breath under control.  
Janet smiled at her. “There. Feel better?”  
Vala nodded.

Janet sat back on her hunches and admired the new environment. “Nice place.”  
Vala smiled meekly. “I feel at home here.”  
Janet hummed and got to her feet. She offered a hand to Vala who took it gratefully and let the woman lift her to her feet. A little shaky, she held on to Janet for support before she felt comfortable.

Vala had been tortured by the hand device before, but had never experienced anything like what she had just been through. She could physically feel her mind failing, feel herself disappearing, feel something else moving inside and filling up the space where important things had once been.

“Thank you.” She’d never been so scared in her life.  
Janet touched her arm. “No. Thank you. This place is much stronger. It’s much easier to protect you here.”

Vala sniffed and grinned. Then she pouted. “I did like the forest. It was very pretty.”  
Janet blushed, and laughed. “Thank you.”

The world rushed back inside the vacuum of a thick, metal spear pulled backwards out the front of her skull, the splayed arrowhead ripping through her brain and tearing out her eyes. Vala curled in on herself like a spider preparing to die, and screamed. She was no longer in her room at the SGC. Janet was gone.

“Rest now. We will try again soon.”  
Vala heard Nephthys’ soft footsteps pass around her. She sobbed through clenched teeth, and writhed like a leaf snapping in fire. She laughed miserably. “Looking forward to it.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vala is surprised at how fondly she remembers the love of Nephthys and Qetesh.

“How could I have been so stupid?”  
Cam looked up from the table he shared with Daniel where, if they were honest, they’d been waiting for Sam to find a solution and tell them how they were going to find Vala and Nephthys.

Sam walked into the mess with Teal’c at her side. The Jaffa had been keeping her company, or keeping her calm, while she wracked her brain trying to figure out how to amplify the power of the ship’s scanners and pick up Vala’s beacon.

“Well,” Cam said, sitting back in his chair and kicking his head to the side. “I’m sure you’d be the one to tell us how it was possible.”  
Teal’c almost smirked, but Sam was oblivious to the joke.  
“She’s out of phase,” she said, extending her arms outwards in exasperation. “That’s why we can’t find her. That’s why we can’t scan for her.”

Daniel smacked the table with his fist and scowled at himself. Cam decided the man must have thought he should have thought of that.  
“Assuming you’re right, which, let’s face it, you always are, what’s our next step?” Cam asked.  
“We put the ship out of phase. Our scanners should work in finding her,” Sam explained.

Daniel slumped in his chair. “Right, but the Odyssey doesn’t have that kind of technology on board.”  
“I know.” Sam sighed and shifted her weight apprehensively from one leg to the other and looked up at her CO regrettably. “We’d have to travel back to Earth and pick up Arthur’s Mantle.”

“Do we really have that kind of time?” Daniel asked.  
“We have even less the more we argue about it.” Cam launched back in his seat so the legs wailed on the floor. He gave a motivational clap as he rocketed to action. “Let’s head on home.”

 

* * *

 

Vala squeezed her toes and let her chin rest on her knees. Nephthys had made sure Daniel wouldn’t be able to find her until she was completely gone. When that happened, it wouldn’t be like before. She wouldn’t just be trapped inside her own body while Qetesh reigned. Vala wouldn’t be there at all. She wouldn’t be anywhere.

Daniel promised her he would bring her back. Vala didn’t even know where he would even bring her back from. She shouldn’t have let him make that promise. She should have made him promise to kill Qetesh. Kill her, before she killed him and everyone else she’d ever loved.

“Do you remember the night we shared,” Nephthys said, her voice gentle next to her. She sat beside her on a loveseat overlooking the ocean and jagged mountains beyond. “That wonderful night we had before...before Setesh...”

Sorrow and affection swelled in Vala’s chest. She could waste strength denying they were her feelings but she felt them so strongly that where they came from didn’t matter. Her arms ached at the grain of trauma in Nephthys’ voice. She wanted to turn and take her into her arms and hold her.

She could remember the way The Goa’uld’s body, her former body, felt in her embrace. The height and breadth of muscular shoulders under her hands, the way her own body fitted perfectly in the strong arch of Nephthys’ spine. Vala could remember that it was only in her beautifully severe presence that Qetesh ever surrendered herself completely.

In those moments, even Vala was unafraid. She felt peaceful, she felt protected. It was the most complete relief she ever felt as Qetesh’s host. Nephthys was not like other Goa’uld. She was brilliant and intriguing and intoxicating.

When Nephthys made love to Qetesh, Vala felt fleeting freedom. Somehow, by some use of alien technology or other mysterious power, Nephthys could lull Qetesh into such a state of suspended euphoria, Vala’s suppressed consciousness drifted to the surface.

“There you are,” Nephthys would say to her, power crackling across her body like blinding starlight, and Vala would squirm and practically see, in her head, Qetesh perfectly sedated and peaceful, almost pitiful.

“Vala. Poor little thing.”  
It was really only a side effect. Vala didn’t think Nephthys ever really meant to set her free. It fascinated the Goa’uld when it first happened. Her manipulation of Qetesh was just so complete that Vala’s mental binds released.

“Shhh,” Nephthys would coo. Vala would feel her inside, sensations so overwhelming her whole body pulsed.  
Qetesh understood and allowed Nephthys interest in her human host. Vala was always surprised at how gentle Nephthys was with her.

“Just a little longer.”

Vala could only lie there and be grateful Nephthys held her through it. The Goa’uld’s pity on her was always expressed in threads of amusement and irony. Because the longer she took, the more time Vala was free. Qetesh was with her, for every blissful swell, but she hadn’t the strength or cognition to suppress her.

“Now little one. Time to go.”  
She didn’t have the voice to beg. She wanted to stay. Nephthys could see it screaming in her eyes but only smiled at her. Vala was forced back into the farthest recess of her mind. It felt exactly like falling backwards into a deep pool of water neither hot nor cold that never touched her skin.

The night before Setesh came, Nephthys was scared. It was a shock to Qetesh and Vala both. Their feelings, for once, were mutual in their ache and love and their want for nothing more than to comfort and protect her. They wanted her to run away with them. Their world would end without her.

Qetesh was but a lowly underlord and one of many serving Camulus. His patience regarding Nephthys was thin, but he tolerated her when she promised him, and teased him with, Ancient technology in exchange for time with his fiery servant.

Qetesh had not yet risen ranks, and had no real force to her name. Seth had all but clipped Nephthys’ wings by the time she first encountered her. There was no escape for either of them. Vala knew that. Qetesh refused to give in. She was so deeply in love and so Vala shared that feeling.

Qetesh tried again to convince Nephthys to run away with her. They spent the night together. Setesh caught them. Vala had never felt Qetesh so afraid. Seth beat her and strung her up, forcing her to watch him draw screams after screams from Nephthys’ writhing, shaking body . And when he was done he made them watch him tear Nephthys apart and rip out her symbiote.

Vala’s voice rasped. “You were a lot taller then.”  
Nephthys snorted and laughed prettily. “You tried to persuade me. You tried to get me to leave with you. I was...I was too scared. I was scared Seth would come after us...no matter where we went. I didn’t want him coming after you.”

There were tears in Vala’s eyes that just wouldn’t fall. They suck there, burning. Qetesh searched everywhere for where Seth had hidden her lover.

Nephthys raised her palm.  
Vala pulled away, fretting, and her tears quickly fell. “Please. Please don’t.”  
“Shhh,” Nephthys whispered, stretching her body over Vala as she shrank down into the sofa. Vala sobbed as the hand device hovered above her eyes. “Now little one. Time to go.”  
Vala seized and gagged.

“Vala?”  
“Ah!” Vala leapt backwards from Janet. “Stop doing that,” she grumbled, puffing frazzled hair from over her eyes.  
Janet arched an eyebrow. “Sorry,” she said, smirking.

“I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” Vala said, clutching her skull.  
“You need to focus on yourself. Focus on who you are.” Janet touched her arm and gently urged her to the end of the bed so they could sit together. “Tell me more about yourself. Tell me about your new life on Earth.”

Vala winced. The hand device was making soup of her mind. “Heh. Hard to think clearly.” She pressed the heel of her palm to her forehead, as if to push escaping thoughts back inside.

“Do you have a favourite food?”  
Vala laughed. Her hands came together on her lap, bouncing a little. “I’m quite partial to waffles. Cameron Mitchell makes extraordinary waffles.”  
Janet chuckled fondly.

“I like jam.”  
“Mmm. I must admit I do miss strawberry jam on toast.”  
“...Oh...Daniel and the others sure are taking their sweet time rescuing me.”  
“They won’t give up on you, Vala,” Janet said, putting her arm around the woman.

Vala nodded. “Sam is smart. She’ll figure something out.”  
Janet’s eyes shimmered. She reached for the frizzy locks of hair falling out of Vala’s plaits and smoothed them down affectionately. “Yes she will.”

Suddenly Vala convulsed and froze, eyes wide, breath fast and shallow. She tugged away from Janet, rising to her feet. She leered contemptuously at the doctor and snapped, “Who are you?”  
Janet frowned. “Vala?” When she tried to rise from the bed Vala slapped her across the face. Janet turned with the blow and tensed desperately. If she lost concentration, Nephthys would discover her.

“Where am I? Why have you brought me here? Answer me you useless cretin.”  
Vala’s hand snatched into Janet’s hair and pulled her brutally off the bed to the floor. She held her up, and gave her a shake. Janet looked up and saw Qetesh.

“...Janet? Oh!” Vala let her go, trembling. “Help me!”  
Janet rose unsteadily to her feet. “It’s alright. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.” It wouldn’t happen again. She was caught off guard when Vala mentioned Sam.

“I can feel it. I’m losing more and more of myself,” Vala sniffed, letting Janet hold her.  
“No you’re not. Here.”  
Vala looked down at Janet’s hand. Draped across her fingers was a small silver chain. A familiar charm flashed and twinkled in the dim SGC guestroom light.

Vala blinked, amazed. “Where did you get that?”  
“You know where.”  
Vala took the chain into her own fingers, holding it up and smiling. “My father gave me this.” She wound the chain into her palm and closed her fingers over the charm.  
“You’re not losing anything, Vala. I’m here to make sure of that,” Janet said firmly.

Vala closed her eyes and smiled so broadly it hurt her mouth. Holding the little necklace over her heart, she felt anchored. She looked at Janet. It was all her. She was keeping Vala together.  
“...Sam was right about you.”  
Janet sighed, her heart rattled by the endearment. “Sam is right about everything.”

 

* * *

 

Daniel intended to keep his promise. He didn’t know yet how he would reverse what Nephthys did to Vala, if she succeeded, but he would never give up. He had let down too many people he loved most in the universe. Damned if he was gonna let Vala go.

Cam checked the Sodan cloaking device on his wrist. They were pretty darn nifty. “Now,” he ordered.

They followed his lead. Together SG-1 raced into the villa. They found Nephthys on the porch, her palm extended, and the terrible beam burrowing into Vala’s head as she lay prone and twitching on the loveseat.

“Another step and I’ll kill her,” Nephthys warned calmly.  
“Qetesh dies with her,” Daniel returned, inwardly relieved that she hadn’t yet succeeded in restoring the Goa’uld’s identity.  
Nephthys scoffed and smirked. “I’ll get over it.”  
“Really?” Sam challenged, cocking her head. “Just like that?”

Nephthys grinned and deactivated the hand device. She left the sofa and stalked back through the pillars into the living room. “You want to know the beauty of this situation? I can kill you, but you can’t kill me.”

“Who said we were here to kill you?” Cam grinned. Nephthys turned in time to see him whip a zat gun from its holster. He barely got it set when Nephthys threw a wave of energy at him. Cam went flying, and if Teal’c hadn’t been there to catch him, might have fatally collided against one of the stone columns.

The two crashed hard against the column, and fell in a painful heap. Teal’c had taken most of the impact and didn’t move. Cam moaned and a single finger quivered against the stone tiles.

Sam fired her zat, but it struck Nephthy’s shield. The Goa’uld simply thrust out her hand, fingers sticking into her throat like the savage jaws of an animal, and drove her back into the wall. She used her other arm to twist the zat out of Sam’s hand. It clattered on the floor.

Sam grabbed at her fingers, gulping and gagging tears blooming in her wide, frantic eyes. The volley of a zat gun kept hitting the shield.

“Sam! Let her go!” Daniel charged at Nephthys but she tossed her hand out behind her and sent him flying against the wall.

Nephthys squeezed harder. Every once in a while Sam’s body ticked with spasms, her energy to struggle coming in short, dwindling bursts as muffled noises gurgled from her limply parted mouth.  
There was a quality of fascination vivid in the Goa’uld’s eyes as she watched Sam suffering and felt the throb of blood and contracting throat muscles against her palm.

Nephthys held up her hand device and the jewel glowed. Sam was drawn to it, mesmerized. Her arms fell slack by her sides and she drooped against the wall. The phenomenal strength of the Goa’uld alone kept her from slumping to the floor.

“I’ll let Janet watch you die again later.”  
Sam slid down the wall and folded over like a ragdoll. Nephthys spun and honed in on Daniel. The man was just pushing himself off the floor. He gripped his zat gun anxiously, baring his teeth.

“I’m surprised at you. At all of you. This was a very poor plan,” Nephthys snarled.  
Daniel sighed and shut his eyes. He lowered the zat gun in defeat. “I just wanna say...one thing,” he said, his eyes opening and fixing on Nephthys.  
“What is that?”

“Don’t give up.”

Nephthys blinked. A flash of blue sparkling light shattered around her body. Daniel released a long breath as she crumpled to the floor.

“Wow. You weren’t kidding about the outfit.”  
Daniel looked up at Jack and made his lips into a thin line. He left Jack to admire Nephthys’ scantily clad form while he went to help a waking Vala.  
“Ohhhh I’m gonna have this headache for years,” the woman groaned.

Daniel helped her to sit up. When she opened her eyes and realized who it was she gasped. “Daniel!” Then she punched him hard in the stomach. Daniel wheezed and doubled over.  
“That was for taking so long!” Vala scolded, as Daniel fell to his knees, coughing. She shot up to her feet.  
“You are just the worst at timely rescues.” With that she marched around him and back into the living room.

“Oh. Hello, General O’Neill,” she said brightly.  
Jack was still distracted by Nephthys’ exotic outfit on Janet Fraiser’s body. “Hm?”  
“Nice of you to come rescue me.”  
“Yes,” Jack muttered. He tugged his gaze away from Nephthys with some effort and looked up at Vala. “Kiss for the hero?”

“Uhh...little help?” Cam pleaded, his voice muffled by the angle of his face against the floor.  
Vala skipped off to help him and Teal’c. Jack shrugged and then turned, responding to a moaning Sam.

“Easy,” he said.  
Sam sat up and blinked her eyes to focus. “Jack...what...?”  
“Shhh,” he said, with a finger over his lips. “You’ll wake The Little Goa’uld That Could.”  
Sam leaned over to peer around him, her heart sagging at the sight of Janet’s unmoving form. Jack pulled her up and steadied her to Nephthys’ side.

Daniel joined them, still wincing. “Take a picture, Jack.”  
“What?” he whined innocently.  
Sam knelt down. She tenderly brushed the curls of hair from over Janet’s face, her heart breaking.  
“Sam...” Daniel said gently. “The Asgard only permitted us to rescue Vala. We have to leave her.”

Sam’s vision blurred with tears. “I know.” Now she knew how Daniel had felt. A hand squeezed her shoulder, and a finger brushed affectionately around the edge of her ear.  
“Give her a moment,” she heard Daniel whisper to Jack before leading him over to where Vala struggled to lift Cam and Teal’c to their feet.

Janet looked so beautiful. Sam wanted nothing more than to lean down and feel her lips against hers. But the others were watching her. Daniel had done his best to give her a little privacy but her team were still only a few feet away, even if they were distracted by Teal’c and Cam’s humorous immobility.

“I love you,” Sam said – quiet – touching Janet’s shoulder. “I’ll be back for you. I promise.”  
Tossing a quick glance over her shoulder she kissed her fingertips and touched them to Janet’s cheek, so that when Jack turned, he saw nothing suspicious.

“Carter.”  
“Coming, Sir.”  
Once again, SG-1 left Janet Fraiser behind.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ladies share a touching goodbye.

“It’s been months.” Sam watched the light of hyperspace ripple like ribbons across the shield. “We abandoned her for months.”  
At least they’d all survived that long. The attack from Ombos never came. Recon by SG-6 reported that the Ori had found their world. Setesh did not return to save them.

“It’s a might better than three years,” Vala offered, coming to observe beside her. Sam turned her head unappreciatively, but Vala didn’t notice.   
“We had no other option,” Teal’c said gently.

Sam sighed and hugged herself. With the demise of the Asgard, their treaty with Nephthys dissolved. The holographic simulation of Thor said he hoped he could trust the SGC to uphold their treaties and do their best to protect the planets that fell under their protection. But that since the Asgard were gone, the galaxy should not continue to suffer for their mistakes. They had his blessing.

Sam wondered if Thor hadn’t programmed the message personally himself.  
“Coming out of hyperspace,” Major Marks announced.   
Everyone on the bridge stared expectantly through the shield into the empty black space.   
“Scanning for the planet,” Major Womack said.

Sam caught Daniel’s eyes. They had never given up, but all they had been able to do was hold on to hope. There was absolutely no way around the Asgard treaty. If the Asgard had not made another fatal mistake, they would not even have this chance to rescue Janet now.

“Something’s wrong...” Cam said, “This is taking too long.”  
“Maybe she’s taken the planet out of phase,” Sam said. Teal’c was prepared for this eventuation. He activated the Sodan cloaking device on his wrist. Sam waited nervously next to the space he had disappeared.

He returned to their dimension, grave. Sam shook her head. “No...”  
“The planet is not there,” Teal’c said. His head bowed sadly and Sam took a step away from him. She looked desperately out the shield.   
Daniel pounced on the navigation console, making Major Womack jump in alarm. “A-are you sure we’re at the right coordinates?”

Womack stammered. “Positive. These are the coordinates we used last time.”  
Daniel all but shouted in her ear, slamming his hands on the screen. “Check again.”  
“I’m sorry,” Womack said, “These are the correct coordinates.”

“She knew.”

“Knew what?” Vala asked Sam.  
“She knew the Asgard were no longer protecting her.”  
Looks of apprehension were exchanged among the members of SG-1. Sam scoffed and slouched. “She destroyed the planet. She’s gone.” So was her hope. “Nephthys could be anywhere.”

 

* * *

 

Sam followed Jack down the ramp in the Gateroom as the light from the Stargate collapsed behind them. “Party at my place,” the General announced, shooting a finger in the air. “Come for the cake. Stay for...more cake, really.”

Sam smiled at him. He was adorable when he was cheerful. “I thought it was lunch.”  
“Well, now it’s a party with cake.”   
“Let me just clarify,” Daniel said, waving his finger academically. “You will be serving cake at this party.”

Jack bent his spine one way and then the other to work out several kinks that had formed during the three hours standing around waiting for Ba’al’s extraction ceremony to actually get to the extraction bit.   
“Have you ever known me to throw a party without cake?”

“Sometimes you even throw cake without the party,” Daniel teased as SG-1 made their way out of the Gateroom.   
“So long as there’s a place to sit, I’m there,” Cam complained, rubbing his thumbs into the small of his back.   
“What do you think a guy my age does all day besides sit around with a stack of...” Jack paused at the raised eyebrows he received from Sam and Teal’c. “...Books.”

“Books, Sir?” Sam provoked.   
Jack shrugged one shoulder. “I read them strictly for the pictures, of course.”  
Sam grinned and shook her head. “Oh, of course.”

Their route to the Infirmary was intercepted by General Landry.   
“How did it go? I assume we’re finally rid of the Goa’uld System Lords.”  
“For now,” said Teal’c, “But other Goa’uld will most surely rise in their absence.”  
“Well, hopefully the SGC can stay on top of the Goa’uld threat,” said Hank, marching beside them.

When the base siren sounded, the six of them diverted their course to the technician room.   
“What now?” Jack grumbled as they arrived to view the Stargate splash in on itself, the event horizon glimmering like a luminous pool.

“Uh, hello?”  
The voice was unmistakable. Cam’s brow creased in concern. “Vala?”  
“Cameron? Is that you?”  
SG-1 exchanged curious expressions. Vala didn’t sound too distressed, but they had only just left the Tok’ra planet. Surely Ba’al hadn’t somehow been able to resist being sucked from his host and left to die on the ground.

“We’re all here, Vala. What’s going on?” Daniel asked.   
“Right. You might wanna come back to the Tok’ra planet. You won’t believe who they found.”

 

* * *

 

“She was caught after you left when her phasing device malfunctioned,” Vala explained as she walked with Sam through the Tok’ra temple. They stopped outside a featureless stone wall, guarded by four Tok’ra agents.

“Sam,” Vala said, facing her. She fidgeted nervously, eyeing the space in the wall between the guards. Sam held her shoulders and Vala flinched, snapping her gaze back at Sam with a faint gasp.   
Sam smiled tenderly. “It’s okay. Go wait with the others.”  
Vala nodded and backed out of her hold. Sam watched her turn and retreat in a jog. Then she took a preparatory breath and held it before facing the wall.

Sam waited patiently as one of the Tok’ra agents used a crystal to open a door in the wall, and then stepped inside. Nephthys stood defiantly in the middle of the scarce meditation room.

“I never got to see Setesh take his final breath,” Nephthys said, by way of explanation. “The look in his eyes knowing he was about to die. Ba’al was just like him. More sophisticated, mind you, but in the end he wanted and...took...the same thing from me.”

The night before Sam left for Atlantis, Vala insisted on spending the night. Ostensibly, to help Sam pack and prepare for her part in the expedition, but the con turned Soldier wanted Sam to know the whole story of Nephthys.

Maybe by knowing, Vala reasoned, Sam would have more insight into where she might be hiding. Sam wasn’t a psychologist, she tried to tell her, but as Vala told her story, it was clear that these were heavy things to have carried by herself for so many years and just needed someone to relieve some of the burden.

“Daniel could never understand,” Vala said, her pallid skin resisting the light Sam had turned on just to remind herself there was relief to every darkness. “There are urges in me I fight every day. He wonders why I insist on building these elaborate facades to hide who I truly am. The truth is...if I’m not creating a new persona for myself...I can’t be sure it’s mine or that of Qetesh.”

The small chamber echoed with Nephthys’ measured steps towards her. Sam felt her muscles shiver but resisted moving.   
“He was the one with all the power. All I had was...this host,” Nephthys said, parting her arms indicatively, inviting Sam to examine her body and understand something terrible. “Something he could...lord over.”

Sam flinched. She understood too well and her worst fears were confirmed.   
Nephthys came close to her, removing the distance between them in millimetres until Sam could feel the subtle feathering of her breath against her neck. “I wanted to see him helpless. I wanted to see him die and know that Seth looked the same.”

Sam swallowed and a small gasp rolled over her lip. “Was it worth it?”  
Nephthys smiled up at her, eyes dark and shining. “Every bit.”  
Sam scoffed, her smile sloppy with sympathy.

“You promised you would get her back.”  
Sam was caught off guard by the statement. Nephthys calmly, and conscious of Sam’s unease, smoothed her fingers against Sam’s cheek.

In alarming tenderness she picked short, sunlight locks between her thumb and forefinger simply to feel their silken texture. “You promised her...you would get her back.”

Dizzy with emotion, Sam wavered on her feet, and if Nephthys did not adoringly brush her hair and hook her hand against the back of her head, knew she would have fallen.

“That made an impression on me, Samantha Carter. I believed there was nothing I could do to bring back my love. But Vala Mal Doran...she was with you. Of all the things I expected...She was...right there. Everything Qetesh was, she was still there inside Vala. I let her go the first time because I believed nothing could be done. And I couldn’t bring myself to kill her. Then you made a promise to the woman you loved. And that hope...it touched me.”

Nephthys released her and her hand curled over her own chest. “Qetesh was there. I just needed to...get her back.”

Sam sniffed. “It wouldn’t have worked,” she said.  
“With more time–”  
“No.”

Nephthys’ eyes flashed angrily with light. “You over estimate Vala’s resistance to–”  
“You underestimate Janet.”  
Nephthys was silenced. Sam watched the Goa’uld’s eyes dart incredulously. “...What?”  
“Your idea may have worked,” Sam admitted, “But when you opened Vala’s mind to your influence, you allowed Janet passage through the neural link as well. She gave Vala the strength to resist you.”

Nephthys angled away from her. “...I...would have known. I have access to Janet’s memories.”  
Sam’s voice gained in boldness. “You were so focussed on the memories of Qetesh that you never bothered to check Vala’s. And Janet used all her strength keeping those few experiences in Vala’s mind from you.”

“...She did seem unusually quiet and reclusive...” Unexpectedly, she grinned and held her stomach, bowing over a little. “I’m sorry,” Nephthys excused, holding up her hand to a very confused and anxious Sam. “There is laughter in my head.”  
Sam could not resist the smile that stretched her lips. Her heart tickled at the idea that Janet was laughing, and that her joy was irresistibly shared by the Goa’uld.

Nephthys recovered, clearing her throat and turning back to Sam. “I should have known. It was immediately clear to me that Janet Fraiser was an incredibly strong woman, but perhaps I did, as you say, underestimate that strength. To have kept those memories from me for all this time would have taken extraordinary mental discipline.”

Sam recoiled when Nephthys took her shoulders. The darkness in her eyes was not frightening, but brilliant, a quality Sam knew belonged to Nephthys alone.  
“Samantha Carter. Cherish Janet Fraiser. Respect her. I will go gladly to my extraction if you promise me these things.”

It was something Sam had never before considered. That the fear a Goa’uld felt before their extraction might come from their profound and deeply emotional connection with their host. And Nephthys, who preferred not to suppress her host’s mind, might actually feel the severing of that bond as more than just the loss of a functional body.

As sadistic and evil minded as Nephthys was, Sam could see her protective sentiments were genuine. Any offense Sam took at having her intentions and motivations questioned by a Goa’uld quickly diminished.

“I promise.”

 

* * *

 

 

“For the love of all that you hold dear and sacred. Please. Guys,” Jack implored histrionically to the Tok’ra who had begun to chant, “Skip to the end.”  
“Uh, Jack?” Daniel leaned toward him. “They weren’t reciting a list of her crimes. Nephthys wasn’t a System Lord and, well, isn’t important enough.”

Restrained between two considerably armed Tok’ra, Nephthys scoffed. “Humour me,” the Goa’ul smirked.  
“No! No...” Jack hurriedly waved his hands at the Tok’ra Elder, “There will be no humouring.”  
Nephthys dimpled the corner of her mouth indifferently.

“Nephthys,” the Elder spoke, grandly, “You will be given this time to speak freely. Admittedly, you are the first among the Goa’uld not to object to their own extraction. For this we will allowed you to take your time.”  
There was a distinct groan of impatience from Jack’s general direction as the Elder gave a permissive nod to the guards holding Nephthys. Once released, she walked along the row made by the members of SG-1.

Nephthys walked directly to Vala. For a moment the Goa’uld appreciated the raven beauty, admiring the wildness of her hair, the apprehension in her eyes, the resolve of her stance.   
“There is only one thing I wish to ask, Vala, and I suppose there is nothing to stop you lying to me.” Nephthys tipped her head. “Qetesh. Did she ever stop looking for me?”

Vala chewed her lips. Daniel could see tears glimmer in her eyes.   
“No.”  
Nephthys hummed. “A kind lie.”

The Goa’uld turned with resignation, and took her steps towards the extraction device when Vala reached out and held her. The Tok’ra guards shifted uneasily but did nothing to stop Vala coax Nephthys back to her.

She cupped her hand against the Goa’uld’s cheek. Nephthys’ eyes drifted close, purring sadly into Vala’s touch. When Vala took her face in both hands, Nephthys opened her eyes in surprise. Uncomfortable protests flickered and faded in the throats of her team, as Vala pulled Nephthys close and took her lips passionately, lovingly with hers.

The Elder had told Nephthys to take her time and Vala decided the invitation had extended to her.

Vala was not Qetesh, but she was losing Nephthys again and it was hurting her just as it did the first time. Vala was crying when they parted and Nephthys hushed her tenderly.   
“Oh. Little one...”

Jack turned to Daniel, a quip ready in his open mouth. Then he closed it.

Nephthys held a fingertip over Vala’s lips to quiet her tiny sobs. “Time for me to go.”  
Vala shivered. Teal’c put a firm hand on her shoulder and urged her back in line. Vala came willingly, and turned into his chest to hide her tears. His large hand brushed soothingly in her hair.

Nephthys was bound to the extraction device. Though Jack called her back, Sam ignored him and approached the Goa’uld. Nephthys sniffed in amusement when she felt Sam take her hand. With her head strapped tight, Nephthys could only move her eyes to look down at Sam.

“Are you here for Janet or for me?” The flutter in her expression belied her bravery. Sam had no answer for her. Nephthys spat dismissively, but smirked as she looked away. Sam could feel her shaking and, after a while, felt her grip tighten around hers. And though every moment of the extraction was horrible, Sam never looked away and never let her go.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack finally gets his party.

Blissful air filled her lungs as Janet took in a full, conscious breath. Her eyes opened, blinking slowly as all light and sound and feeling combined into proof of her existence. She tested her toes, grinning at the perfect sensation of friction against her skin.

She pushed down with her hands, muscles responding instantly to her command. That, alone, caused a choke in her throat and her body to surrender against the bed once more. Her movement alerted someone else in the room.

“Dr Fraiser.” A young and unfamiliar woman came to her bedside. Janet looked up at her, seeing her friendly half smile and was calm when the woman took her pulse. “I’m Dr Carolyn Lam. How are you feeling?”

The woman’s touch was firm and efficient, but there was kindness in her eyes as if it were a secret. Janet chuckled, and even making the sound overwhelmed her. She closed her eyes and smiled serenely.   
“Incredible.”

When Carolyn smiled again that reluctant warmth shined out her eyes. She cocked her head indicatively. “Should I wake her?”

Janet followed her eyes and there she saw Sam, resting her head beside Janet’s hip. The silken sheet of her long, blonde hair draped over her face and arm where Janet could see her hand poking out beneath it, a gentle weight over her own hand.

Janet lifted her other hand from under the covers and let it hover wholly over Sam’s head. She lowered it just enough to feel the softness of her lover’s hair tickle against her skin. Carolyn nodded to herself and, touching Janet’s shoulder briefly, quietly excused herself to let them be alone.

Sam stirred, moaning. She yawned expansively, automatically covering her mouth and then looked around. Her pretty face glowed in delight.   
“Janet!”  
Janet held the tips of a lock of Sam’s hair in his fingers.   
“Your hair.”  
Sam blushed, beaming clumsily.   
“I like it.”

Sam cupped Janet’s hand between her own and kissed her fingers.   
“I’ll be right back.”  
Janet’s brows lifted. “You’re leaving? Now?”  
Sam smiled reassuringly. “You’re not going anywhere. Right?”  
“Right,” Janet said, and Sam looked suddenly overwhelmed by the trust she must have seen in her lover’s eyes. Janet watched her stand and held Sam’s hand until her fingertips drifted from her touch.

Her gaze followed her all the way to the Infirmary door where she disappeared. Janet was left alone to look around the familiar room. It struck her hard. She was free. And she was home.

“She hadn’t left your side since they brought you in here.” Carolyn busied herself behind a computer at the end of the room. Janet pushed herself up in bed and sat back against the pillows. “Guess she thought waking up to find me would be a huge disappointment.”

Janet grinned, her heart swelling with affection for Sam. She laughed at the raised eyebrow Carolyn directed at her over the top of her computer. The young doctor hunched back down, obscured behind it once more, clicking away with the mouse. “No, that’s fine. Don’t reassure me or anything.”

Janet was smiling in exhausted amusement when she was alerted to movement at the door again. Her heart nearly burst.

“Mom...”   
Janet stared. Cassandra, her beautiful daughter, was a young woman.   
“Cass...” There, her voice failed. She couldn’t hold back her tears, and unrestrained emotion shook her body. The girl she raised and loved with every beat of her heart fell against her, sobbing.   
“Mom!”

She needed to see her face so she held the girl’s cheeks in her hands and held her still. Cassie. Janet wanted to tell her she was beautiful. She wanted to tell her she missed her so much. She wanted to tell her she never stopped thinking about her and that she loved her. Loved her more than she could know.

But she could only cry and return the girl’s embrace. Standing in the doorway, Sam cried happily too.

 

* * *

 

The gathering at Jack’s place was perhaps larger than his stylish bungalow could accommodate. Somehow, his humble bachelor pad heaved her walls and made them room.

Jack swung his glass. “To us.”  
Everyone lifted their glasses in kind.   
“For doing in a handful of years what the Tok’ra failed to do in thousands.”

Vala cheered several decibels above the rest and everyone took a drink.   
“We are now officially the most awesome race in the universe,” Jack declared. It was hard not to notice Teal’c’s disproving glare elevated amongst the crowd in his living room. Sheepishly, Jack backpedalled. “Closely followed by the free Jaffa.”

Teal’c’s expression was unmoving.   
Jack winced. “Very closely.” Jack held up his thumb and forefinger at a miniscule distance. “Very, very closely.”

Teal’c relented and finally broke a smile. Sam nudged him in the arm and felt his deep chuckles reverberate in her ribs.

As the assembly drifted into groups, Jack made his way through the room, weaving and edging until he joined Sam and Janet and Teal’c.  
“Ladies. Teal’c.”  
“Jack,” Janet greeted.   
“Sir,” Sam said, nudging her glass in recognition.

Jack leaned close to Janet. “So...any chance you kept that outfit?”  
Sam gasped, horrified. “Sir!”  
Janet just chuckled impishly. “Maybe.”  
One of Jack’s eyes squinted and twitched as though a circuit had blown in his brain. “You’re killin’ me, Doc.”

Janet shrugged innocently. When she next looked up at Jack his bravado had fallen. Perhaps he had been fighting a long time to maintain it. It was, after all, his only defence against the crippling guilt he would always feel.

He didn’t need to tell her how he was really feeling. He didn’t even need to show her. Janet knew Jack O’Neill.   
She pulled herself up by his shoulder and kissed his jaw. Whispering into his ear she said, “I might wear it at your next Halloween party.”

“I’m gonna hold you to that!” Jack called after her as she linked arms with Sam and walked away grinning.

Jack sighed and watched the two women go. He blinked fondly until he lost them in the crowd. Looking around for a new direction, he spotted Cameron Mitchell drinking alone. Excusing himself from Teal’c company he went to join him outside on the back porch.  
“Hey,” he said.   
Cam had propped himself on the banister with a bottle of beer.   
“Hey, General,” he sang cheerfully. “Or should I start calling you–”

“Jack,” he said quickly. Cam snickered and nodded. Jack eased his elbows onto a spot next to him, the neck of his own bottle suspended in his fingers. The younger man gulped loudly from his drink and gazed up at the night sky. Jack regarded him quietly.

“You don’t ever stop doubting yourself.”  
Cam looked across at him. Jack held his gaze. The truth was, after losing Janet Fraiser in the field, Jack no longer trusted himself to lead SG-1. Every time he stepped through the Stargate he was ready to lead his team. He was ready to give his life for Sam, for Daniel and Teal’c.

Every time they faced danger, Jack would reflect on the small miracle they had all made it back home alive. That day on P3X-666, Jack led his team through the Stargate, ready to lead them and bring them home safely again. And he did. Because that’s what he prepared for.

He was not prepared for a CMO on the outer edge of heavy enemy fire. If he was thinking of her at all, he would have confiscated that camera, grabbed Daniel’s weapon and shoved it flat against his ribs so it hurt. He would have told him to bring her and that soldier home safely, goddammit.

Daniel followed his lead. He questioned it, so many times, but he always followed it. And that day, Jack failed to lead him. He hadn’t even considered it. A few Jaffa still in service to a Goa’uld was just too damned familiar. Too damned comfortable. Go in, rescue the stranded team, get out.

Nothing was familiar to Cameron. Cam was uncomfortable. He would take everything into consideration. The young man was eager and enthusiastic but he was careful because he’d learned that lesson. Even before Jack did. They were hard and painful lessons.

There was no one else Jack trusted with the lives of his dearest friends. Cam squinted with intelligence and intuition and smiled at him.  
“No. You don’t.”  
Jack nodded and they chinked bottles.  
“You did good,” Jack added as an afterthought, looking out across the yard again.   
Cam cracked a bashful grin and hung his head. “Thanks.”

The party had been going at full steam for almost an hour. A few people danced on the porch. Others talked around the table of party food, or shared beers in the kitchen.

Janet found Daniel sitting alone on the sofa. He looked up at her, a spark of disbelief playing across his features before he realized he wasn’t dreaming.   
“Mind if I sit?”   
“Please,” said Daniel. He hurriedly brushed off the cushion for her, even though it was perfectly clean.

Janet sat beside him, her knees turned towards him and her hands folded neatly on her lap. Daniel appraised her with awe in his eyes, as though he considered himself unworthy to be in her company.   
“I got the message,” Janet told him.

Daniel quirked his head. “Sorry?”  
“Back on Sekhem you told me not to give up.”  
“Oh.” He blushed and smiled.  
“It kept me going. All that time. Even when Nephthys went into hiding and it didn’t seem like you would ever find me. I remembered you, and the look in your eyes. That’s always been the incredible thing about you Daniel. You can inspire such...hope.”

Daniel’s jaw had gradually come undone until he was staring, dumbfounded. Janet smiled, endeared to him.   
“There’s something I wanted to tell you,” she said, setting her features once more. “Because...I know it’s been on your mind ever since Nephthys brought it up. I know you’ve been asking yourself how could Nephthys accuse you of leaving me behind on P3X-666 if that wasn’t my perspective.”

Daniel closed his eyes and his head drooped dismally.   
“They weren’t my feelings so much as my fears. I was afraid you’d blamed yourself. I was afraid...I was afraid of what might have happened between you and Sam. I’m glad you both reconnected.”  
Daniel huffed dismissively. “Thanks to you.”  
Janet touched his knee, and Daniel looked down at her hand, startled. “Sam would have come round eventually. She can’t stand to be apart from the people she cares about.”

Daniel laughed in agreement, thinking of all the times either he or Jack were lost off world.   
“And she cares so deeply for you. It would have just taken some time.”  
A lot of time, Daniel thought. Perhaps when they were much older, retired from the SGC. He appreciated Janet’s optimism but he knew better.

Sam was in love with Janet. It took Daniel a long time to forgive Teal’c for killing Sha’re and the Jaffa did so to save his life. Janet died because Daniel failed to keep her safe. Sam’s heart didn’t break that day. It was destroyed. He saw it happen. He’d never seen so much volcanic anguish in one person.

“If I had just...”  
“Daniel.”  
Daniel smiled and nodded. Sam had already forgiven him. He needed to forgive himself. “Right.”

“Hope I’m not interrupting.”  
They looked up to see Vala edging towards the side of the sofa, tapping her nails together.   
“Not at all,” Janet said, “Care to sit with us?”  
“Actually I was hoping I could have a word with you. I-in private. If that’s okay.”  
Janet looked to Daniel and then back at Vala. “Uh, sure. You don’t mind?” she added, to Daniel.   
He vigorously shook his head. “Of course not.”

Janet followed Vala through Jack’s house to a quiet, empty room. The woman shut the door and stood there uncertainly like a child. Janet waited, eyebrows raised expectantly. Valla suddenly took three quick steps and stole Janet into a hug.

“Oof!” Janet chuckled in surprise and returned her hug curiously.   
Vala pulled back, holding Janet by the shoulders. The look in her eyes was intense. “You saved my life.”  
Janet gaped. “Well...I may have helped a little,” she frowned modestly.  
Vala resettled her feet against the floor and her stormy eyes focussed piercingly into Janet’s. “You saved my life.”

Janet felt her chest tighten. Vala persisted.

“Who knows what kind of damage Nephthys might have done to me if it weren’t for you. All that messing about in my mind...She could have left me...hollowed out and...broken. Beyond repair. I know what you went through to save me. I know that what I was feeling was nothing compared to what you were going through, keeping me together while keeping Nephthys from detecting you, keeping what you were doing from her. I cannot begin to fathom the mental strength that would have taken. I am forever in your debt.”

Vala pulled her into a second hug.   
“Vala.” Janet eased her apart. “You don’t owe me anything. And you need to know, the only reason I had the strength was because I drew from you as much as you drew from me. You were the strong one, Vala. I was really just...keeping you company.”  
Vala smiled. “Whatever you say.”

She wasn’t easily going to convince Vala in one short conversation that she really couldn’t have protected her if Vala didn’t have strength of her own. But they would have plenty of time to talk now, and perhaps in that time Janet would be able to show Vala Mal Doran just how strong she was.

“It is a beautiful night,” Teal’c said, finding Sam standing at the very end of the back porch. She had somehow managed to find a moment to herself and, watching the stars, she looked peaceful and beautiful. Teal’c saw contentment. There was no one he knew deserved it more.

“It is,” Sam said, her voice adrift in awe.  
Teal’c stood beside her, hands at his back. “I have not seen you so happy in a long time, Samantha Carter.”  
“I’ve never had so much to be happy about.”

Teal’c doubted Sam even realized what she’d said and the dreamlike quality to her voice as she’d said it. He was moved by it.

He shuddered suddenly. Teal’c knew a Sam who had not smiled in almost fifty years. He knew a Sam who had spent years trapped on the Odyssey inside a time dilation field drowning in sorrow.

“You will find a solution, Samantha Carter. And when you do, it will be as though this time was never lost.”  
Surely her eyes could cry no more tears, but they never ended. “What if I fail, Teal’c? Janet is out there, host...to a Goa’uld.” Her head shook and her jaw trembled. “If I don’t work this out...and if that ray destroys this ship...Janet will be trapped for ever. Teal’c. I don’t know if I can...I don’t...”

She had been unable to say more. Teal’c had gently traced the subtle lines of age and chronic despair around her tragically beautiful eyes. He brought her into his arms and rocked her.

Teal’c was thankful every day that Sam and Daniel did not share his memories of those many decades trapped in space. He had truly never seen two souls so bereft of all hope. It was the darkest time in Teal’c’s life.

“I believe it is the love you feel for Janet Fraiser that has kept you smiling this whole night.”  
Sam turned, eyes alight. Her feet scuffed backwards along the planks.   
Teal’c simply smiled. “I am happy for you.”

Sam stammered. She tried and failed to speak. A look of horror fell like a shadow over her face as Jack came up to them. Sam blushed hard fearing what Jack had overheard.

“Carter.” He nodded.  
“S-s-s...” Sam closed her eyes, the blood rushing to her face making her break out in a cold sweat. She made a valiant attempt to say ‘Sir’ one more time but choked instead. She reached suddenly for the banister, feeling her head start to spin.

“Where’d the Doc go?”  
Sam tried to say she didn’t know but all that came out was crackly, hollow breath.  
Jack smirked. “Thought you’d never let her leave your sight.”

Sam wobbled on her feet and gripped the banister more bracingly.   
“Sam.”  
Sam forced her eyes to open. It took a while for the blur to fade and for Jack’s sympathetic smile to come into focus.   
“Make her happy.”

The air rushed from her lungs.  
“But be careful.”  
“Yes, Sir,” she finally croaked.

Teal’c and Jack turned to leave.  
“Wait,” Sam called to them. “How...how did...?”  
Teal’c and Jack exchanged looks.

When Janet unexpectedly walked out the back door and stepped onto the porch, Sam inhaled slowly and in awe.   
Jack pointed at her. “That’s how. Come on, T. Let’s leave the ladies alone.”  
“Very well.”

Janet smiled at Jack and Teal’c as they passed her. When she noticed the startled look on Sam’s face her eyebrows lowered in amusement and curiosity. “What was that all about?”  
“Nothing,” Sam dismissed, fussing her hands.

The suspicious slant to Janet’s smile made Sam nervous. But instead of the twenty questions she expected Janet instead made a simple request.  
“Take me home?”

Sam had been forced to sell Janet’s home so Cassie could afford to go to College and live on campus. For the past few days Janet had been staying in a room at the SGC while she underwent various psych and medical evaluations and was subjected to debriefings.

On Janet’s behalf, Hank made sure that none of the tests or interviews were overly invasive. She knew, in time, Janet would open up to her, but she wasn’t going to ask.

Janet’s gaze lowered shyly. “Your place?”   
Sam nodded and her heartbeat drummed a little harder. “Sure.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The obligatory bedroom scene.

She felt like a teenager fumbling her key into the front door. Her cheeks flushed, feeling Janet’s charmed gaze watching her clumsy performance. Finally she kicked open the door and distinctly heard Janet chuckle as she entered the house.

The women met in the living room. It struck Sam painfully the way Janet explored the interior with her eyes wide in wonder, how her fingers brushed along the back of the sofa reverently. A rush of emotion surged up her throat as Janet closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath and hummed in familiarity. To think the woman remembered her scent was unexpectedly rousing.

She cleared her throat awkwardly. “I can, uh...I can sleep on the couch if...”  
Janet scoffed and grinned as she moved close to Sam. She tenderly brushed a lock of her hair across her brow.

“I want to fall asleep knowing you’re right there beside me.”  
Shivers danced down Sam’s spine. Janet’s eyes looked rich and deep. “Okay. I...I kept a lot of your clothes. Here.”  
She didn’t see the suspicious smirk on Janet’s lips as she led the woman to her bedroom.

She opened the top drawer of her dresser and began to take out some soft, pale items she’d kept. Sam’s breath quivered when Janet’s body eased against her to peer into the drawer. Her small hand came down, stopping her removing anything else.

“The shirt is fine.” Janet gently took the garment from Sam’s hand. She looked back inside the drawer again, and made a small noise. She seemed to know what purpose the drawer had served in all the years Sam had believed she’d lost the woman she loved. She tenderly removed Sam’s arm from inside the drawer and closed it.

“Uhh,” Sam began as Janet draped the shirt over the end of the bed and started to remove her shoes. “I’m sorry I’ll...sorry.” Stop starting, Sam turned with the intention of leaving the room. Janet grabbed her arm.

“It’s alright, Sam.” She smiled at her as she stepped out of her pants and pulled off her top. Sam just watched, jaw hanging. Just as Janet reached behind to remove her bra, Sam let her eyes sink shut. She could only hear the sounds of her lover dressing for bed.

A hand on her arm made her jump.   
“I’ll be back soon.”

Sam opened her eyes and turned to see Janet’s arm disappear into bathroom. Sam turned about anxiously, her breath in short gasps. She decided to get ready for bed. She was just pulling a tank down over her midriff when she heard Janet return.

Her hair was down, and despite the lack of shine and vitality, Sam was moved by how natural she looked. Her pale, washed face looked almost grey, but Sam thought she had never seen her more beautiful.

Janet climbed into bed. Sam clenched her jaw, silently scolding herself for being so nervous. Her lover smiled, inviting Sam in beside her.

Sam pulled back the covers, sliding herself under the sheets, trembling. Janet rubbed her hand over her thigh over the covers.   
“Okay. Go ahead. Get it all off your chest.”  
“What?”

Janet giggled quietly. “Everything that’s making you so uncomfortable. You can ask me anything. Tell me anything. Just, let’s get it all out tonight.”  
Sam tensed. “Janet...”  
Janet’s voice was light. “Anything. Go on.”

Sam snorted through a shameful smirk and her gaze fell into her lap. “I...went to Atlantis.”  
“I know.”  
Sam stared at her.  
“Teal’c filled me in. On everything that happened the past two years.”

Sam gripped her hands together, her eyes evasive. “I...I told myself Nephthys could have known the Ancients originated from the Pegasus galaxy but...I still feel like I gave up searching for you.”

“Nephthys did go to the Pegasus galaxy.”  
Sam looked up at her. Her heart had caught in her throat. “...What?”  
Janet smiled warmly at her, and gently brushed her cheek with the back of her finger. “You should know by now, Sam. You’re right about everything.”

Her time in Atlantis played in her mind, from the moment she began her leadership. The change of environment had been good for her, and it was liberating to be among people who didn’t know her as deeply as Daniel and Teal’c. She could hide her feelings more easily.

To think she had been so close to finding Nephthys made her heart ache.   
“I didn’t...”  
“She went looking for Atlantis,” Janet explained. “The city wasn’t where she thought it would be.”  
Sam bounced on the bed, slapping her knees. “That’s because we had to leave that planet to escape the Replicators!”

Janet beamed endearingly. “I know.”  
Sam shook her head, disappointed in herself and regretting everything that happened. She couldn’t believe how calm and understanding Janet was being.

She felt her lover’s hand squeeze her thigh.  
“Nephthys quickly learned that people from Atlantis were exploring the galaxy, fighting the Wraith and the Replicators. It wasn’t hard for her to track you down.”

“She found us?”  
“She had phasing technology, remember? She explored the city out of phase. She...taunted me. So many times I was so close to you. Nephthys could have easily...”

Sam shuddered, feeling chills prickle the back of her neck.   
Janet’s beautiful eyes drifted downward to her lap.   
“Part of her...part of her would have delighted in killing you. Another part of her...was in as much pain as I was.”

Seeing her struggle, Sam reached around her back and held her. Janet sniffed, and nudged her nose briefly with the back of her finger.   
“Feeling that way was the reason she eventually left. She returned to the Milky Way galaxy. And I thought...at least you were alright. You were living your life. You were still part of the fight.”

Janet heaved and her head tilted with emotional difficulty. Sam chewed her lip in anticipation. She was suddenly afraid she wouldn’t be able to handle what Janet told her. She couldn’t let her down.

Janet shook her head, her gaze still in her lap. “She’d been through some terrible things, Sam. Too much of it is so awful I can’t...”  
Sam felt tears biting her eyes. She held Janet more firmly in her arm and felt the smaller woman shudder.

“They’re just flashes and impressions of crippling terror. I’m a doctor. I hate to see people, anyone, suffer. I knew what she was and the things, horrible, shocking things she’d done but I knew a side of her that was so alone and so afraid and in so much pain.”

“You helped her,” Sam realized.  
Janet gave a small nod. She opened her hands and looked into her palms. “Nephthys was protecting that city.”  
Sam reared in doubt and confusion.

“Those people you tried to help, they were bandits who had free reign of the city before Nephthys returned. She drove them back. I know it wasn’t out of kindness. The city was hers and she simply reclaimed it.”

Everything Daniel had said about the city and the people living in it began to make sense. Runihura had never cared who or what Nephthys was. All he had cared about was taking back control of the city.

Sam blinked and felt a stab of pain at the sight of a tear falling softly on the bedsheet over Janet’s lap.   
“Part of me mourns her, Sam.” She started to cry and Sam felt useless. “I knew her as well as I could know myself and she was all the company and companionship I had for so long and now she’s...she’s not there.”

Sam rubbed her hand up Janet’s arm and held her shoulder. She tenderly stroked her fingers through her hair. “I know.”  
“She was cruel. She was a sick...twisted killer.” Janet sniffed and wiped her nose on the back of her hand and uttered an ironic laugh. “God. How can I feel like this?”

Sam leaned into her, resting her cheek against her hair.   
“Your consciousness was shared with hers. Everything she felt, you felt. That kind of relationship.... It’s not something you can just recover from. That consciousness becomes a part of you as though it had always been there.”

She kissed Janet’s hair and draw gentle circles around her cheek. “If...if you need someone to talk to about it I’m sure Vala wouldn’t mind. She’s helping Ba’al’s host at the moment, too.”  
The sound of Janet snorting surprised her. “You really want me spending more time with Vala?”  
Sam smiled. “I’m not threatened by her.”  
Janet pulled aside and turned her head to look her in the eye. “Really?”

Sam set her features firmly. “Really. It’s fine.”  
Janet pouted. “Oh. Well that’s no fun.”

Sam’s lips curved. “You want me to feel threatened?”  
Janet narrowed her eyes mischievously. “I think you would be if you only knew the kind of memories I have of her...” Her gaze lifted reflectively. “Mmmm...Oh yeah. That’s a good one. Ohhhh my...”  
Sam gradually frowned in concern. “Hey, stop it!”

Janet bit her bottom lip indulgently. “Mmmm...” It was only when one of her hands slipped and moved under the sheets that Sam’s eyes flashed.

“Alright! Alright.”  
Janet chuckled triumphantly.   
Sam huffed and slouched against the pillows. “I guess it does...worry me. A little.”

Janet reached for her. “I’m only teasing.”  
Sam sniffed miserably. “Yeah?” Her eyes closed at the touch of soft lips against her jaw. She moaned when a small hand smoothed under her tank and felt under her breast, hefting the weight and testing the flesh with firm fingers.

Sam dribbled like melting candlewax down the pillows, keening softly in want.  
Janet’s breath was hot inside her ear. “Let me make it up to you.”


End file.
